THE 



CHILD'S PICTORIAL 

HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



(i) 



- 




DEATH OF LLEWELLYN. 




THE CHILD'S 

PICTORIAL 

HISTORY OF ENGLAND 



FROM THE 



EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIM. 



BY MISS CORNER, 

AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND, GREECE, ROME, FRANCE, 
SPAIN, AND PORTUGAL. 



.from t!}c ®i]irteeutl) Conbon €bition. 

PHILADELPHIA: ryj 

HENRY F. ANNE R ' S? 
48 NORTH FOURTH STREET. ' 
18 5 3. 



-Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 

JI. F. MOBS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, 
in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



PHILADELPHIA : 
STEREOTYPED BY GEORGE CHARLES, 

No. 9 Sansom Street. 



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pit 



PREFACE 



W TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 



M 



A juvenile history of England has long been 
needed in our primary schools. 

Those already prepared, and in use, are writ- 
ten in a style entirely beyond the capacities of 
young children, and too comprehensive in detail. 
""History for children ought to be told in their 
wn simple language, or it fails to interest them ; 
hile all that is unfitted for childish ears, or 
iisuited to a childish understanding, should be 
C trefully omitted ; at the same time, it is essen- 
al to avoid making false or imperfect impressions 
by an injudicious brevity." ' 
Philadelphia, 1853. 



1* (5) 



The Publisher invites the attention of those engaged in tuition, 
to the following reviews, selected from a large number, recom- 
mendatory of Miss Corner, as an historian for the school-room : 

" Miss Corner is an excellent historian for the school-room ; she 
narrates with fluency and clearness, and in a concise and lively 
manner." — London Sjyectator. 

" It is written with clearness and simplicity, the principal 
events are accurately and briefly described, and the whole is well 
adapted to the comprehension of young persons."— London Atlas. 

" Miss Corner is concise in matter, yet perspicuous in style, 
delicate in narration, yet accurate in record, comprehensive in 
reference, yet simple in arrangement." — Devonport Independent. 

" Miss Corner writes intelligently and fluently, with much ease 
and winning grace." — London Magazine of Arts and Sciences. 

" The beauty of composition throughout the writings of Miss 
Corner is singular and fascinating." — London Sun. 

" This meritorious work is written in a very easy and agreeable 
style, perfectly adapted to the capacities of the young persons for 
whom it is intended." — London Times. 

"Miss Corner has acquired a deserved celebrity for the singu- 
larly-attractive and intelligible manner she has in narrating his- 
tory." — London Critic. 



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(KnntentB. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

The Ancient Britons, 9 

CHAPTER II. 
The Romans in Britain, 16 

CHAPTER III. 
The Saxon Heptarchy, 24 

CHAPTER IV. 
Manners of the Saxons, 33 

CHAPTER V. 
The Danes and Alfred the Great, 41 

CHAPTER VI. 

From the Death of Alfred to the Norman Conquest, 50 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Norman Conquest, 59 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Norman Period— 1087 to 1154, 68 

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8 CONTEXTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

PAGE 

Henry the Second, Richard the First, and John — 

1154 to 1216, 82 

CHAPTER X. 

From the Death of King John to the Accession of 

Richard the Second— 1216 to 1399, 95 

CHAPTER XL 

From the Accession of Richard the Second to the 

War of the Roses— 1392 to 1422, 110' 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Wars of the Roses— 1422 to 1461, 119 

CHAPTER XIII. 

From the Battle of Bosworth, to Queen Elizabeth — 

1461 to 1558, 128 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Queen Elizabeth — 1558 to 1613, 140 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Stuarts. From the Union to the Revolution — 

1603 to 1689, 150 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Revolution — 16S9 to 1714, 168 

CHAPTER XVII. 
House of Hanover— 1714 to 1830, 175 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

From the Death of George the Third, 1830, to the 

Present Time 190 



CHAPTER I. 

THE ANCIENT BRITONS. 




ANCIENT BRITONS. 



1. Would you not like to read about your 
own country, and to know what sort of people 
lived in it a long while ago, and whether they 
were any thing like us ? Indeed, they were not ; 
neither was England, in ancient times, such as 
it is now. 

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10 THE CHILD'S PICTORIAL 

2. There were no great cities, no fine build- 
ings, no pleasant gardens, parks, or nice roads 
to go from one place to another ; but the people 
lived in caves, or in the woods, in clusters of 
huts, which they called towns. 

3. The country was not then called England, 
but Britain ; and its inhabitants were called 
Britons. They were divided into many tribes ; 
and each tribe had a king or chief, like the 
North American Indians ; and these chiefs often 
went to war with one another. 

4. Some of the tribes lived like savages, for 
they had no clothes but skins, and did not know 
how to cultivate the land : so they had no bread, 
but got food to eat by hunting animals in the 
forests, fishing in the rivers, and some of them 
by keeping herds of small hardy cattle, and 
gathering wild roots and acorns, which they 
roasted and eat. 

5. But all the Britons were not equally unciv- 
ilized, for those who dwelt on the south coasts 
of the island, had learned many useful things 
from the Gauls, a people then living in the coun- 
try now called France, who used to come over to 
trade with them, and with many families of 
Gauls who had at various times settled amongst 
them. 

6. They grew corn, brewed ale, made buttei 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 11 

and cheese, and a coarse woollen cloth for their 
clothing. And they knew how to dye the wool 
of several colors, for they wore plaid trowsers 
and tunics, and dark colored woollen mantles, in 
shape like a large open shawl. 

7. Perhaps you would like to know what they 
had to sell to the Gauls ; so I will tell you. 
Britain was famous for large dogs ; and there 
was plenty of tin ; and the South Britons sold 
also corn and cattle, and the prisoners which 
hud been taken in war, who were bought for 
slaves ; and you will be sorry to hear that many 
of the ancient Britons sold their children into 
slavery. 

8. They carried these goods in carts, drawn 
by oxen, to the coast of Hampshire, then crossed 
over to the Isle of Wight, in light boats, made 
of wicker, and covered with hides or skins, in 
shape something like half a walnut shell. 

9. The merchants from Gaul met them in the 
Isle of Wight; and as they brought different 
kinds of merchandise to dispose of, they man- 
aged their business almost entirely without 
money, by exchanging one thing for another. 

10. The Britons were very clever in making 
things of wicker work, in the form of baskets, 
shields, coated with hides, boats, and chariots, 
with flat wooden wheels. 



12 THE CHILD S PICTORIAL 

11. These chariots were used in war, and 
sharp scythes were fixed to the axles of the 
wheels, which made terrible havoc when driven 
through a body of enemies. 

12. But I shall not say much about the wars 
of the ancient Britons, or their mode of fight- 
ing ; as there are many things far more pleasant 
to read of, and more useful to know. 

13. At that time, which is about one thousand 
nine hundred years ago, the country was almost 
covered with forests ; and when the people 
wanted to build a town, they cleared a space for 
it by cutting down the trees, and then built a 
number of round huts of branches and clay, with 
high pointed roofs, like an extinguisher, covered 
with rushes or reeds. 

14. This was called a town ; and around it they 
made a bank of earth, and a fence of the trees 
they had felled ; outside the fence, they also dug 
a ditch, to protect themselves and their cattle 
from the sudden attacks of hostile tribes. 

15. As to furniture, a few stools or blocks of 
wood to sit upon, some wooden bowls and wicker 
baskets to hold their food, with a few jars and 
pans of coarse earthenware, were all the things 
they used; for they slept on the ground on 
skins, spread upon dried leaves, and fern, or 
heath. Their bows and arrows, shields, spears, 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 13 

and other weapons, were hung round the insides 
of their huts. 

16. The Britons were not quite ignorant of 
the art of working in metals ; for there was a 
class of men living among them who understood 
many useful arts, and were learned, too, for 
those times, although they did not communicate 
their learning to the rest of the people. 

17. These men were the Druids, or priests, who 
had much more authority than the chiefs, be- 
cause they were so much cleverer ; therefore the 
people minded what they said. 

18. They made all the laws, and held courts 
of justice in the open air, when they must have 
made a very venerable appearance, seated in a 
circle on stones, dressed in long white woollen 
robes, with wands in their hands, and long 
beards descending below their girdles. 

19. The ignorant people believed they were 
magicians, for they knew something of astron^ 
omy, and of the medicinal qualities of plants 
and herbs, with which they made medicines to 
give the sick, who always thought they were 
cured by magic. 

20. Some of the Druids were bards, that is 
poets, and musicians ; others taught young men 
to become Druids ; and some of them made a 

2 



14 THE CHILD'S PICTORIAL 

great many useful things out of the metals that 
were found in the mines. 

21. You will perhaps wonder where the 
Druids gained all their knowledge. I cannot 
tell you ; but many learned men think that the 
first Druids came from India or Persia, as the 
religion they taught was very similar to that of 
the Persians and Hindoos. 

22. They did not believe in the true God, but 
told the people there were many gods, and that 
they were in trees and rivers, and fire, which 
they worshipped for that reason. 

23. They had no churches, but made temples, 
by forming circles of large stones, of such im- 
mense size that nobody can guess how they were 
carried to the places where they stood, for there 
are some of them still remaining. 

24. They used to hold several religious festi- 
vals in the course of the year, when all the peo- 
ple made holiday, and the bards played on their 
harps and sang, and there was plenty of feast- 
ing, and merry making; and they used to light 
bonfires, and make an illumination by running 
about with torches in their hands, for they be- 
lieved that a display of fire was pleasing to their 
gods ; and so you see that our custom of having 
fireworks, and illuminations, and bonfires, on 
days of public rejoicing, is as old as the time of 
the ancient Britons. 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 15 

25. The Druids had a great deal to do on 
those days ; for they used to go to their temples 
and say prayers, and sacrifice animals for offer- 
ings to their false gods ; and on New Year's 
Day, they walked in procession to some old oak 
tree to cut the mistletoe that grew upon it, for 
this was one of their religious ceremonies ; and 
the oldest Druid went up into the tree to cut the 
plant, while the rest stood below singing sacred 
songs, and holding their robes to catch the 
boughs as they fell ; and crowds of men and wo- 
men stood round to see them. 

26. But I must make an end of this chapter 
about the ancient Britons, and tell you how the 
Romans came and conquered the country, and 
made quite a different place of it. 

QUESTIONS. 

3. What was England called in ancient times ? 

4. How did the Britons resemble the American Indians ? 

5. Describe the tribes that were most civilized ? 

7. With whom did they trade, and in what commodities ? 

8. How and where was their trade carried on ? 

10. For what manufacture were the Britons famous ? 

13. How did they build a town ? 

15. Describe the furniture of their habitations. 

17. Who were the Druids ? 

18. Tell me what you know about them. 

19. Mention the different employments of the Druids. 
21. Where is it supposed the first Druids came from ? 
25. Describe their temples. 



16 



THE CHILD S PICTORIAL 



CHAPTER II 



THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN. 




LANDING OF JULIUS CiESAR. 



1. The Romans, about the time of the birth of 
Christ, were the richest, the most powerful, and 
the cleverest people in the world. Rome was a 
grand city, and there were many other fine cities 
in Italy belonging to the Romans, who knew 
how to build handsome houses, and make beau- 
tiful gardens, besides being excellent farmers. 

2. They had elegant furniture, and pictures, 
and marble statues; and they were well edu- 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 17 

cated, and wrote a great number of books in 
Latin, for that was their language, and many of 
those books are used in our schools to this day. 

3. They had large armies, and had conquered 
a great many countries, when Julius Csesar, a 
great Roman General, brought an army to Brit- 
ain, about fifty years before the birth of our 
Saviour, to try to conquer the Britons also ; but 
thousands of British warriors went down to the 
sea shore, by Dover cliffs, to fight the Romans 
as soon as they landed ; and they took a great 
many war chariots with them, and fought so 
bravely, that after two or three battles, Caesar 
offered to make peace with them, and go away, 
if their princes would pay tribute to the Roman 
government ; which they consented to do. 

4. However, the Romans thought no more 
about Britain for nearly a hundred years, when 
they came again, and went to war in earnest 
with the natives, who at length were obliged to 
submit to them; and Britain became a part of 
the Roman Empire, just as India is at this time 
a part of the British Empire. 

5. Now this was a good thing for the Britons, 
although they did not then think so ; for as soon 
as they left off fighting, the Romans began to 
teach them all they knew, and to make a much 

2* 



18 THE CHILD'S PICTORIAL 

better place of Britain than it had ever been 
before. 

6. As soon as a part of the country was con- 
quered, some great man was sent from Rome to 
govern it, and to make the people obey the 
Roman laws. 

7. Then other great men came to live here, 
and brought their families and furniture and 
plate from Rome ; and built fine houses, and 
planted gardens, with flowers and fruit trees, 
and vegetables, that were never seen here before, 
for they brought the roots and seeds and young 
trees with them. 

8. At first, the Roman governors made the 
Britons pay very heavy taxes ; not in money, for 
they had none ; but they were obliged to give a 
part of their cattle, and corn, and metals, or 
any thing else they had ; and to work with the 
Roman soldiers at building, making roads, drain- 
ing the watery lands, and cutting down trees, to 
make room for houses and gardens. 

9. They did not like this, and one of the 
tribes, named the Iceni, who lived in that part 
of Britain which is now called Norfolk and Suf- 
folk, determined to make another effort to drive 
the Romans out of the country. 

10. You will be surprised to hear that they 
were headed by a woman ; but there were queens 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 19 

among the Britons as well as kings ; and the 
king of the Iceni being dead, his widow Boa- 
dicea governed in his stead. 

11. She encouraged her people to rebel 
against their new rulers, and led them to battle 
herself, mounted in a chariot, and armed like a 
warrior ; but the Romans won the battle, and the 
brave but unfortunate queen put an end to her 
own life. 

12. After this, there was another long war, 
which lasted till all the South British tribes 
were subdued, and the Roman government estab- 
lished all over the country, except the north 
part of Scotland. 

\ 13. It was lucky for the Britons that a very 
good Roman, named Agricola, was made gover- 
nor about this time, for he behaved so kindly 
that they began to like the Romans, and to 
wish to live as they did, and to know how to do 
all the clever things they could do. 

14. I should tell you that all the Roman sol- 
diers were educated as engineers and builders, 
surveyors, and cultivators of land, and when 
not actually engaged in fighting, they were em- 
ployed daily for four hours in some such out-of- 
door labour or occupation ; so, when the war 
was over, they were set to work to improve 
the country, and the Britons had to help them. 



20 the child's pictorial 

15. They made good hard broad roads, paved 
with stones firmly cemented together, and set 
up mile stones upon them. 
\ 16. The Romans had built London during the 
war, and given it the name of Augusta, but the 
houses were almost all barracks for the soldiers 
and their families, so that it was not nearly so 
handsome as York and Bath, and many other 
cities that they built in place of the old British 
towns. 

17. The Britons, who had never seen any 
thing better than their own clay huts, must have 
been quite astonished at the fine houses con- 
structed by the Romans ; who also * built, in 
every city, temples, theatres, and public baths, 
with large rooms for people to meet in, like a 
coffee house. 

18. Then, in each town, was a market place 
for people to buy and sell goods, and the Ro- 
mans taught the Britons generally to use money, 
which was more convenient than taking things 
in exchange. 

19. The Romans were excellent farmers, as I 
said before ; so they shewed the natives how to 
manage their land better than they had done, 
and how to make many useful implements of 
husbandry. 

20. By cutting down the forest trees, which 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 21 

they used in building, they obtained more land 
for cultivation, and grew so much corn that 
there was more than enough for the people in 
Britain, so that a great deal was sent every year 
to the Roman colonies in Germany. 
\ 21 . By degrees, the Britons left off their old 
habits, and those above the lowest rank wore 
the Roman dress, spoke the Roman language, 
and adopted the manners and customs of their 
conquerors, who treated them as friends and 
equals. 

22. There were schools opened in all the 
towns, where British and Roman boys were in- 
structed -together, and the former were all 
brought up to serve in the Roman armies ; for 
there were no more wars among the British 
princes ; who held the same rank as before, 
but paid tribute to the Roman governor, and 
were under his authority, as many of the princes 
of India are now under the authority of the 
English Governor General in India. 

23. The Britons had to pay a great many 
taxes, but they likewise enjoyed many rights, 
for the Roman laws were much better laws than 
those of the Druids, which were made for barba- 
rians, and not for civilized people, such as the 
Britons had now become. 

24. You will, perhaps, wonder what the 



22 THE CHILD S PICTORIAL 

Druids were about all this time. The Romans 
did not approve of their religion, so they put an 
end to it very soon, after, they came here; but 
what became of the Druids, is not exactly 
known. 

25. It is supposed that many of them were 
killed by the Romans in the isle of Anglesea, 
where the chief Druid always resided ; and 
that all the rest fled to Scotland, or the Isle of 
Man. 

26. The Romans, however, were themselves 
heathens, when they first settled in Britain, and 
worshipped a number of false gods ; but their 
gods were different from those of the Druids, 
and the rites and ceremonies of their religion 
were different too. 

27. But, in course of time, many of the Ro- 
mans became Christians, and Christianity was 
taught in Britain, where the heathen temples 
were converted into Christian churches, and the 
Britons, as well as the Romans, at length learned 
to worship the one true God. 

28. The Romans had kept possession of 
Britain for more than three hundred years, when 
it happened that great armies of barbarians 
went to fight against Rome, and all the soldiers 
were sent for, to try to drive them away again ; 
so that this country was left unprotected, for it 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 23 

was the Roman soldiers who had kept enemies 
from coming here. 

29. The Britons hoped they would come back 
again, as they did more than once ; but affairs 
got worse and worse at Rome, so the rulers 
there sent word to the British princes, that they 
did not wish to keep the island any longer, there- 
fore the Britons might consider themselves a 
free people. But was freedom a blessing to 
them ? I think we shall find it was not. 

QUESTIONS. 

3. By whom was Britain first invaded ? 

4. When did the Romans again appear? 

5. Was this conquest a good or bad thing for the Britons, 

and why ? 
8. What occasioned the revolt of the Iceni ? 
10. Who headed the insurrection, and what were its conse- 
quences ? 

13. Who was Agricola ? 

14. How were the Roman soldiers employed in time of 

peace? 

15. Tell me of the improvements made in Britain by the 

Romans ? 
25. What became of the Druids? 
28. When and why did the Romans leave Britain? 



24 



THE CHILD S PICTORIAL 



CHAPTER III. 



THE SAXON HEPTARCHY. 




A SAXON SHIP. 



1. It is now time to tell you something about 
the Picts and Scots. They were the people of 
Scotland, and were called by the Romans Cale- 
donians, which meant men of the woods, be- 
cause they were very rude and fierce, and lived 
among woods and wilds. 

2. They had always been sad enemies to the 
Britons ; but the Romans had kept them away, 
and the good governor Agricola built a row of 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 25 

strong forts, ail across their country, and placed 
soldiers in them, to make the Caledonians keep 
on the other side. 

8. However, they sometimes managed to break 
through; so the Emperor Severus,.who was here 
from the year 207 to 211, had a stone wall built 
across that narrow part, where Northumberland 
joins Cumberland, and it was so strong, that 
parts of the banks and forts are still remaining. 

4. But when all the Roman soldiers were 
gone, the Picts and Scots began to come again, 
and robbed the people of their corn and cattle, 
and stole their children for slaves, and did a 
great deal of mischief. 

5. Now, if the British princes had agreed 
among themselves, and joined together to drive 
out these terrible foes, things might have gone 
on very well ; but they were foolish enough to 
quarrel, and go to war with one another; while 
some of the captains, who wanted to be princes, 
got a number of soldiers to help them, and took 
possession of different places, where they called 
themselves kings, and made the people obey 
them. 

6. They did not continue the good Roman 
laws ; nor elect magistrates to keep order in the 
cities, as used to be done while the Romans were 
here; and tillage was neglected, because the 

3 



26 THE child's pictorial 

farmers were afraid their crops would be de- 
stroyed, so that numbers of people died of 
famine. 

7. There were still many Romans in Britain, 
who were not soldiers but were settled here, 
most of them having married into British fami- 
lies ; and there were a great number of people 
who were Britons by birth, but whose ancestors 
had been Romans ; and all these were desirous 
that the country should still be governed by the 
Roman laws, and formed what was called the 
Roman party. 

8. But there was a British party also, that 
wanted to do away with the Roman laws alto- 
gether, and not to let the Romans have any 
thing to do with ruling the country ; so each of 
these parties elected a king. 

9. The Britons chose a prince named Vor- 
tigern ; and the Romans chose one called 
Aurelius Ambrosius ; and there was war be- 
tween them. 

10. Then Vortigern, the British king, thought 
it would be a good thing to get some other brave 
people to join his party, that he might be able 
to overcome his rival, as well as to drive away 
the Picts and Scots; so he proposed to some 
of the British chiefs that they should ask the 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 27 

Saxons to come and help them, and they thought 
it would be a good plan. 

11. The Saxons inhabited the north of Ger- 
many, and parts of Holland and Denmark, 
which were then poor and barren countries. 

12. Many of their chiefs were pirates, that is, 
they lived by going out on the seas to fight and 
plunder ; nor did they think it wicked so to do ; 
but, on the contrary, imagined it was brave and 
noble. 

13. Two of them, Hengist and Horsa, hap- 
pened to be cruising near the British coast, 
when they received a message from Yortigern; 
who made a bargain with them, and offered to 
give them the little island of Thanet, if they 
would come with all their men, to assist him in 
driving out the Picts and Scots. 

14. Thanet is that part of Kent where Mar- 
gate is now situated, but was then separated by 
an arm of the sea, so that it was a small island, 
standing alone, nearly a mile from the coast. 

15. The Saxons were very ready to come, for 
they knew that Britain was a pleasant, fertile 
country, and hoped to get some of it for them- 
selves ; but they did not let the Britons know 
they thought of doing so. 

16. Hengist and Horsa were very brave, and 
their men were well armed, so they soon forced 



28 the child's pictorial 

the Picts and Scots to retreat to their own coun- 
try; and shortly afterwards they went to the 
Isle of Thanet, which they fortified, and many 
more Saxons came there to them. 

17. I cannot tell you how the affairs of the 
Britons went on, or what became of Vortigern ; 
but this I can tell you, that the Saxons soon 
began to quarrel with the people of Kent, and 
fought with them, and having driven most of 
them away, took the land for themselves, and 
began to live there. 

18. The chief who made this conquest, was 
Esca, the son of Hengist, who called himself 
king of Kent, which, from that time, was a 
small Saxon kingdom, for the Britons never won 
it back again. 

13. Then other chiefs, hearing how Esca had 
succeeded, got together bands of soldiers, and 
landed in different parts of the country, to try 
to gain kingdoms also; but they did not all 
come at once, and their conquests were made by 
such slow degrees, that the wars lasted more 
than one hundred and fifty years ; so you may 
guess how hard the Britons fought in defence 
of their liberty. 

20. We can learn but very little about those 
unhappy times, for the few histories that were 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 29 

then written were mostly destroyed in these long 
wars ; and though songs were composed by the 
bards or poets, which the people used to learn 
and teach to their children, these songs were not 
all true. 

21. They were mostly about the wars, and 
the brave British chiefs who defended the coun- 
try against the Saxons ; and if you should ever 
hear any body speak of King Arthur, and the 
knights of the Round Table, you may remember 
that he is said to have been one of those chiefs ; 
and, if we may believe the tale, killed four hun- 
dred Saxons with his own hand in one battle. 

22. Those who made the story about him, say 
that the nobles of his court were all so equal in 
bravery and goodness, that he had a large round 
table made for them to feast at, that no one 
might sit above another; so they were called 
knights of the Round Table. But let us return 
to our history. 

23. The Saxons went on making one conquest 
after another, till, at last, they were in posses- 
sion of the whole country ; where very few of 
the natives were left, for most of those who had 
not been killed in the wars, had fled into Gaul, 
or taken refuge among the Welsh mountains ; so 
from this time we shall hear no more of the 

3* 



30 THE child's pictorial 

Britons, but roust look upon the Saxons as the 
people of England. 

24. I told you how Esca had established the 
little kingdom of Kent. Well, in the course of 
the wars, six more kingdoms had been formed in 
the same manner, by different Saxon chiefs, so 
that, by the time the conquest was completed, 
there were seven kingdoms in Britain, namely, 
Kent, Sussex, Essex, and East Anglia, North- 
umbria, Wessex, and Mercia ; and this division 
of the country among seven kings, was called 
the Saxon Heptarchy. 

25. The Saxons were not clever people, like 
the Romans, but were rough and ignorant, and 
cared for nothing but fighting ; so while the wars 
were going on, they ruined and destroyed all the 
beautiful and useful works that had been done in 
the Roman times ; for they did not understand 
their value, and only thought it was a fine thing 
to destroy all that belonged to their enemies. 

26. But the works of the Romans were very 
strong; for even now, when workmen are dig- 
ging in London, and different parts of the coun- 
try, they sometimes find Roman walls, and pave- 
ments, and foundations of houses, that show 
what good architects the Romans were. 

27. When the Saxons had got possession of 
the whole country, you may perhaps suppose 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 31 

they would be quiet and contented, but this was 
not the case ; for as long as there were separate 
kingdoms, they were continually at war with 
each other, and the principal cause of disagree- 
ment was, that, among the kings, there was 
always one called the Bretwalda, or ruler of 
Britain, who had some degree of authority over 
the rest ; but as any one of them might be raised 
to this dignity, it was a constant source of quar- 
rels and warfare, until, at length, the weaker 
kingdoms were overcome by the more powerful 
ones, and there was but one king over the whole 
country, which then took the name of Angleland 
or England, from a particular tribe of people 
called the Angles, who came here in great num- 
bers with the Saxons. 

28. I dare say you did not know before how 
Britain came to be called England; and you 
would be very -much amused to hear how many 
of the places in it, came by their present names. 

29. We will take for example Norfolk and 
Suffolk, which, with Cambridge, formed the 
kingdom of East Anglia, and was conquered by 
the Angles. Now these Angles consisted of two 
tribes, who divided their conquest between them, 
one tribe settling in the north part, the other in 
the south ; so that they were called North folk, 



32 THE child's pictorial 

and South folk, and thus came the names of the 
two counties. 

QUESTIONS. 

1. Who were the Caledonians ? 

4. How did they molest the Britons ? 

6. What was the state of the country at this time ? 

7. What was the Roman party ? 

8. What was the British party ? 

10. Who was Vortigern, and what did he do ? 

11. Tell me something about the Saxons. 

16. Who were Hengist and Horsa, and how did they assist 
the Britons ? 

23. What did the Saxons do after this? 

24. What was the Heptarchy ? 

25. How was the country changed by the wars ? 
27. How was the Heptarchy destroyed ? 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



33 



CHAPTER IY. 



MANNERS OF THE SAXONS, 




ANCIENT SAX0N8. 



1. I AM now going to tell you what sort of 
people the Saxons were, and how they lived 
after they were quite settled in England ; for 
,you ought to know all about them, as they were 
our own ancestors, and made a great many of 



34 the child's pictorial 

our laws ; and their language was English too, 
although it has so much altered that you would 
hardly know it for the same. 

2. The Saxons were not Christians when they 
first came here ; but their religion was different 
from that of both the Druids and heathen Ro- 
mans; for they worshipped great images of 
stone or wood, that they made themselves, and 
called gods ; and from the names of their gods 
and goddesses, our names of the days of the 
week are derived. 

3. At length, the bishop of Rome, who was 
called the Pope, sent some good men to persuade 
the Saxons to leave off praying to wooden idols, 
and to worship the true God. 

4. These missionaries first went to Ethelbert, 
king of Kent, who was then Bretwalda, and 
reasoned with him, so that he saw how wrong 
he had been, and not only became a Christian 
himself, but let the missionaries go and preach 
among the people, who were baptized in great 
numbers, and taught to believe in Grod and 
Jesus Christ. 

5. The missionaries were all priests or monks ; 
and some of them lived together in great houses 
called monasteries, which they built upon lands 
given them by the kings and nobles, on which 
they also raised corn, and fed sheep and cattle. 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 85 

6. They had brought from Rome the knowl- 
edge of many useful arts, which they taught to 
the people, who thus learned to be smiths and 
carpenters, and to make a variety of things out 
of metal, wood and leather, which the Saxons 
did not know how to make before. 

7. Then the priests could read and write, 
which was more than the nobles, or even the 
kings could do ; and they used to write books, 
and ornament the pages with beautiful borders, 
and miniature paintings; and the books, thus 
adorned, are called illuminated manuscripts. 

8. Still the Saxons, or English, as I shall 
henceforth call them, were very rough and igno- 
rant as compared with the Romans. 

9. Their churches and houses, and even the 
palaces of the kings, were rude wooden build- 
ings, and the cottages of the poor people were 
no better than the huts of the ancient Britons. 

10. The common people were almost all em- 
ployed in cultivating the land, and lived in vil- 
lages on the different estates to which they 
belonged ; for the Saxon landlords were not only 
the owners of the land, but of the people also ; 
who were not at liberty, as they are now, to go 
where they pleased ; neither could they buy 
land for themselves, nor have any property but 



6b THE CHILD S PICTORIAL 

what their lords chose. I will tell you how it 
was. 

11. The Saxon lords had divided all the land 
amongst themselves, and had brought from their 
own countries thousands of ceorls, or poor 
people, dependent on them, to be their labourers. 

12. Each family of ceorls was allowed to have 
a cottage, with a few acres of land, and to let 
their cattle or sheep graze on the commons, for 
which, instead of paying rent, they worked a 
certain number of days in each year for their 
lord, and, besides, gave him a stated portion of 
those things their little farms produced ; so that 
whenever they killed a pig, they carried some 
of it to the great house ; and the same with 
their fowls, eggs, honey, milk and butter; and 
thus the chief's family was well supplied with 
provisions by his tenants, some of whom took 
care of his sheep and herds, cultivated his fields, 
and got in his harvests. 

13. Then there were always some among 
them who had learned useful trades, and thus 
they did all the kinds of work their masters 
wanted. 

14. Yet, with all this, the poor ceorls gene- 
rally had enough for themselves, and some to 
spare, which they sold at the markets, and thus 
were able tc save a little money. 



niSTORY OF ENGLAND. 37 

15. Their cottages were round huts, made of 
the rough branches of trees, coated with clay, 
and thatched with straw. They had neither 
windows nor chimneys ; but a hole was made in 
the roof to let out the smoke from the wood fire, 
kindled on a hearth in the middle of the room ; 
and they used to bake their barley-cakes, which 
served them for bread, on these hearths, without 
any oven. 

16. They made a coarse kind of cloth for cloth- 
ing from the wool of their sheep, a part of which 
was also given to their lord, and was used to 
clothe the servants of his household, for the rich 
people got a finer cloth for themselves, which 
was brought from other countries. 

17. Great men usually wore white cloth tunics 
that reached to the knee, with broad coloured 
"borders, and belts round the waist. They had 
short cloaks, linen drawers and black leather 
shoes, with coloured bands crossed on their legs, 
instead of stockings. The common people wore 
tunics of coarse dark cloth, and shoes, but no 
covering on the legs- „ 

18. But I must tell you something more about 
these country folks, who, at the time, formed 
the great mass of the English population. They 
were, strictly speaking, in bondage, for they 
could not leave the place where they were born, 

4 



38 THE child's pictorial 

nor the master they belonged to, unless he gave 
them their freedom ; they were obliged to serve 
as soldiers in war time, and when the land was 
transferred to a new lord, the people were trans- 
ferred with it. 

19. All they had might at any time be taken 
from them, and their sons and daughters could 
not marry, without consent of their lord. 

20. Yet these people considered themselves 
free, because they could not be sold like the 
slaves ; for I ought to tell you there was a lower 
class of bondmen, called thralls, and there were 
regular slave markets where they were bought 
and sold. 

21. A landowner could sell a thrall just as he 
could sell an ox ; but he could not sell a vassal 
tenant, or, as they were called in the Saxon 
times, a ceorl, or churl, without the estate to 
which he belonged. The thralls were employed 
to do the hardest and meanest work, and had 
nothing of their own. 

22. The houses of the great men were very 
like large barns, and each house stood on an 
open space of ground, enclosed by a wall of 
earth and a ditch, within which there were 
stacks of corn, sheds for the horses and cattle, 
and huts for the thralls to sleep in. 

23. The principal room was a great hall, 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. ' 39 

strewed with rushes, and furnished with long 
oak tables and benches. 

24. The windows were square holes crossed 
with thin laths, called lattices, and the fire-place 
was a stone hearth in the middle of the earthen 
floor, on which they used to burn great logs 
of wood, and let the smoke go out at a hole in 
the door. 

25. But the great people often had merry 
doings in these halls, for they were fond of 
feasting, and used to sit at the long wooden 
tables, without table cloths, and eat out of 
wooden platters or trenchers with their fingers. 

26. Boiled meats and fish, usually salted, 
were put on the table in great wooden dishes, 
but roast meats were brought in on the spits on 
which they were cooked, and handed round by 
the thralls, to the company, who helped them- 
selves with knives which they carried at their 
girdles. 

27. There was plenty of ale, and among the 
richest, wine also, which they drank out of horn 
cups; and when the meats were taken away, 
they used to drink and sing, and play on the 
harp, and often had tumblers, jugglers, and 
minstrels to amuse them. 

28. Then the visitors used to lie down on the 
floor to sleep, covered with their cloaks ; for 



40 THE CHILD S PICTORIAL 

very few people had bedsteads, and the only 
beds were a kind of large bags, or bed-ticks, 
filled with straw, and blocks of wood for pillows. 
29. Such were the rough manners of our 
Saxon forefathers, who were, however, in some 
respects a good sort of people, and you will be 
sorry for them by and by, when you read how 
the Normans came, and took away their lands, 
and made slaves of them. But I must first tell 
you what happened in the Saxon times, after the 
Heptarchy was broken up, and there was only 
one king of England. 

QUESTIONS. 

4. How were the Saxons converted to Christianity? 

6. By what means did they learn many useful arts? 

8. What was the condition of the common people? 

15. Describe the cottages of the poor. 

16. How did the Saxons dress ? 

21. What were ceorls ? and what were thralls ? 

22. Describe the house of a Saxon chief. 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



41 



CHAPTER V. 



THE DANES AND ALFRED THE GREAT. 




ALFRED THE GREAT. 



1. It was nearly 380 years after the first 
Saxons came here with their two pirate chiefs, 
Hengist and Horsa, that England began to have 
only one king. 

2. There were still some other princes, who 
bore that title, but they had so little power, that 

*4 



42 THE child's pictorial 

they could hardly be called kings ; so that a 
brave prince, named Egbert, who conquered the 
last kingdom of the Heptarchy, is usually called 
the first king of England. 

3. The civil wars were thus, for a time, ended ; 
but it seemed as if the English were never to 
be long at peace, for they now had some ter- 
rible enemies to contend with, who kept the 
country in constant alarm. 

4. These were the Danes who came from Den- 
mark, Norway, and Sweden, and were almost 
the same people as the Saxons ; for they spoke 
the same language, followed the same customs, 
and lived by piracy, as the Saxons did in former 
times. 

5. I have not room to tell you of half the 
mischief they did in England. Sometimes they 
would land suddenly from their boats in the 
night, when the affrighted people were awakened 
by a cry of, "the Danes! the Danes!" and, 
starting up, perhaps, beheld their villages in 
flames ; and, as they ran in terror from their 
cottages, were either killed or dragged away to 
the pirate vessels, with the cattle and any thing 
else that could be found, and made slaves. 

6. Egbert had fought a battle with them in 
Cornwall, and forced them to depart ; but, during 
the reign of Ethelwulf, the next king, and three 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 43 

of his sons, they not only attacked the towns 
and villages on the sea-coast, but used to seize 
the horses and ride about the country in search 
of plunder. 

7. They broke into the monasteries, where the 
people often put their money and jewels for 
safety ; and if the inmates made any resistance 
they would set the building on fire. 

8. Then they set up fortified camps, in many 
places ; that is, a number of tents, arranged to- 
gether, like a town surrounded with a wall and 
ditch ; and thus a great many of the Danes 
established themselves in the country, and con- 
quered all the northern part of it. This was the 
sad state of affairs when Alfred the Great came 
to the throne. 

9. I dare say you have heard of this good 
prince, who was the youngest and favorite son 
of king Ethelwulf, for he was the cleverest and 
best. His mother, being an accomplished lady, 
tried to teach all her sons to read ; but none of 
them would learn except Alfred, who afterwards 
went to Rome to study Latin, and learn to write, 
so that he was a good scholar for those times. 

10. His three brothers had all reigned in 
turn, and were all dead by the time he was 
twenty-two years old, therefore he was then heir 
to the crown ; but, instead of being able to think 



44 THE child's pictorial 

about the best way of governing the country, he 
was obliged to get together as many soldiers as he 
could, and go out with them to fight the Danes. 

11. There was no regular army then, as there 
is now ; but, when the king wanted soldiers, he 
sent to all the noblemen and landholders in the 
kingdom, who were obliged to come themselves 
and bring so many men with them, according to 
the size of their estates, some on horseback, 
some on foot, and all well armed. 

12. You must remember that people could not 
buy land then for money, nor have it for paying 
rent ; but large estates were given to the thanes 
and nobles by the king, on condition that they 
should perform certain services for him ; and you 
have already seen how the vassals of the nobles 
held their little farms on similar terms. 

13. This was called the feudal system, which 
means, holding land for services instead of rent ; 
and the person holding the land was called the 
vassal of him to whom it belonged, whether rich 
or poor ; so the nobles were the vassals of the 
king, and the ceorls were the vassals of the 
nobles. 

14. I think you now understand what the 
feudal system was, therefore I shall proceed with 
the history of Alfred the Great. 

15. The war had gone on for several years, 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 45 

and the king was so unfortunate that, at last, he 
was obliged to hide himself in a woody marsh 
in Somersetshire, called the Isle of Athelney, 
because it was surrounded by bogs and rivers. 

16. The Danes were then in pursuit of him ; 
and, one time, fearing to be taken prisoner, he 
got some man to let him keep his cows, or pi Q o, 
I do not know which ; so that, if the Danes hap- 
pened to see him, they might not guess who he 
was. 

17. I dare say, you have heard the story of 
this peasant's wife scolding Alfred one day, for 
letting some cakes burn, which she had left to 
bake on the hearth, whilst she was out ; but she 
did not know that he was the king, or, of course, 
she would not have taken that liberty. 

18. At last, Alfred heard there were many 
chiefs and noblemen, with their vassals, ready 
to join him again ; so he determined to try 
another battle, but thought it would be pru- 
dent first to learn what was the real strength of 
the enemy. 

19. Now the Danes, like the Saxons, were fond 
of good cheer, and liked to have songs and 
music to make them merry while they w r ere feast- 
ing ; and this put it into Alfred's head to go into 
their camp disguised as a harper, for he could 
play the harp and sing very well. 



46 THE child's pictorial 

20. So away he went, with his harp at his 
back, and, when he came there, the Danish 
chiefs had him called into their tents, and made 
him sit down and play to them, and gave him. 
plenty to eat and drink. 

21. Then he heard them talking about king 
Alfred, and saying, they supposed he was dead, 
as he did not come to fight them, so they need 
think of nothing but enjoying themselves ; and 
thus he discovered they were not prepared for a 
battle, and were almost sure to be defeated, if 
taken by surprise. 

22. He, therefore, left the camp as soon as he 
could, and sent a message to his friends to meet 
him in Selwood Forest, also in Somersetshire, 
with all the men they could muster ; and, when 
they were all come, he put himself at their 
head, and, marching suddenly down upon the 
Danes, fought and won a great battle at Ethan- 
dune, a place in Gloucestershire, now called 
Woeful Danes' Bottom, from the terrible slaugh- 
ter of the Danes there. 

23. But there were a great many Danes in 
England who had not been engaged in this bat- 
tle, and who had possession of almost all the 
northern part of the country; so the king wisely 
considered that it would be much better to in- 
duce them to settle peaceably in the country as 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 47 

friends, rather than prolong those dreadful wars, 
which had already caused so much misery. 

24. He therefore proposed to the Danish 
chief that, if he would promise to keep at peace, 
he should have a wide tract of country, which 
had been desolated by these wars, all along the 
east coast, from the river Tweed to the river 
Thames, for himself and his people, to be called 
the Dane land; so Guthrun, the Danish chief, 
accepted the offer, and parcelled the land out 
amongst his followers, who settled there with 
their vassals, and lived the same manner as the 
Saxons. 

25. You may think how glad the people were 
that the wars were over, and the king was very 
glad too, for he now had time to do what was 
more pleasant to him than fighting, which was, 
to do all the good he could for the country. He 
thought the best way to defend it against its 
enemies was to have good ships to keep them 
from landing ; but, as the English did not know 
much about ship-building, he sent for men from 
Italy to teach them, and also had models of 
ships brought that they might see how they were 
constructed, and men were taught to manage 
them, so that England, for the first time, had a 
navy. 

26. These ships were called galleys, and were 



48 THE child's pictorial 

worked both with oars and sails ; they were twice 
as long as those of the Danes, and stood higher 
out of the water. 

27. While some workmen were making ships, 
others were employed in rebuilding of the towns 
and villages that had been burned down by the 
Danes ; and the king ordained that there should 
be schools in different parts of the kingdom, 
where noblemen's sons might be educated, for he 
had found the benefit of learning himself, and 
thought it a. sad thing that all the great men 
should be so ignorant as they were. 

28. You may, perhaps, wonder why so good a 
man as Alfred should only think of having the 
great people taught to read ; but reading would 
have been of no use to the common people, as 
the art of printing was unknown, and there were 
no books but those written by the monks or 
nuns, which were so expensive that none but 
very rich people could afford to have even two 
or three of them. 

29. The principal school founded by king 
Alfred was at Oxford, which was then a small, 
poor place, with a monastery, and a few mean 
wooden houses for the scholars to live in, very 
different from the present grand university, and 
the masters, who were all churchmen, and called 
learned clerks, resided in the monastery. 

30. Alfred, with the help of some good and 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 49 

clever men, whom he consulted in every thing, 
made some very wise laws, and obliged the people 
to obey them, by having courts of justice held 
in the principal cities, regularly once a month ; 
for no body had thought much about law or 
justice either, while the wars were going on, so 
that there was need of some very strict regula- 
tions to restore good order, without which there 
can be neither happiness nor comfort any where. 
31. Under the good government of Alfred the 
Great, England enjoyed more peace and pros- 
perity than it had known since the days of the 
Romans ; and as his son and grandson both en- 
deavoured to follow his example, the influence 
of his wisdom was felt long after his death, which 
happened when he was about fifty years old, in 
the year 900. 

QUESTIONS. 

2. Who was called the first king of England ? 

4. Who were the Danes ? 

8. How did they establish themselves in the country? 
10. Who went to war with them ? 
11 How was an army raised in those times ? 
12. What was the feudal system ! 
15. What happened to Alfred ? 
22. What was the battle of Ethandune ? 
24. How did Alfred make friends of the Danes? 
26. How was a navy first formed ? 

29. Which of our universities was founded by Alfred thfe 
Great ? 

5 



50 



THE CHILD S PICTORIAL 



CHAPTER VI. 

FROM THE DEATH OF ALFRED TO THE NORMAN 
CONQUEST. 




CANUTE AND HIS COURTIERS. 



1. Alfred was succeeded by his son Edward, 
who was a very good king, though not so clever 
as his father. He built walls round a great 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 51 

many of the towns, to defend them in case the 
Danes should come again ; for, although so many 
of them were living quietly in the country, those 
who did not live here were still enemies, and the 
resident Danes were always ready to join their 
countrymen. 

2. But they could not do much mischief while 
Edward was king, or in the reign of his brave 
son Athelstan, who was almost as great a prince 
as Alfred himself. 

3.' He knew that commerce was one of the 
best things in the world for any country, so he 
had more ships built, and sent them to trade with 
foreign countries ; and he said that, when any 
man had made three voyages in a vessel of his 
own, he should be made a Thane ; which was the 
same as knighting a gentleman in these days. 

4. There were no stores in England at this 
time, but the people bought every thing they 
wanted at markets and fairs ; and they used to 
salt a great deal of their meat and fish, that it 
might keep a long time. 

5. In buying and selling, they sometimes used 
slaves and cattle, instead of money, a man slave 
being worth a pound of silver, and an ox worth 
a quarter of a pound, which was called five shil- 
lings, as a shilling was the twentieth part of a 
pound in weight. 



52 the child's pictorial 

6. If a nobleman, therefore, wanted to buy 
any thing of two pounds value, he could pay 
for it with two of his thralls, or eight oxen, and 
the seller was obliged to take them ; but he 
could sell them again directly ; for I am sorry 
to say there were slave markets in England till 
some time after the Norman Conquest. 

7. Athelstan had a good deal of fighting to 
do, for the people of the Daneland revolted, and 
he was obliged to lead his soldiers into their ter- 
ritory, to bring them to order ; and then he had 
to march against Howel, the Prince of Wales, 
who was defeated in battle, when Athelstan 
nobly gave him back his dominions, saying, 
" There was more glory in making a king than 
in dethroning one." 

8. I shall not mention all the kings that 
reigned after Athelstan, because there were 
many of them who did nothing that is worth 
telling about ; but I must speak of a great 
churchman, named Dunstan, who was Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, and, for several reigns, 
ruled the whole country, for the kings and 
nobles were obliged to do just as he pleased. 

9. He was a very clever man, and so good a 
worker in metals that he made jewellery and 
bells, and gave them to some of the churches, 
which was considered an act of piety ; for it was 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 53 

about this time that bells began to be used in 
England, and they were highly valued. 

10. Dunstan persuaded the kings and rich 
noblemen, to rebuild the monasteries that had 
been plundered and destroyed by the Danes, and 
endow them with lands ; so that, at last, nearly 
one-third of all the landed property in the king- 
dom belonged to the clergy. 

11. There was a king named Edgar, the fourth 
after Athelstan, who did many useful things for 
the country ; and, among others, he thought of 
a plan to destroy the wolves, which were so nu- 
merous in all the forests, that the people were 
in constant alarm for the safety of their sheep, 
and even of their little children. 

12. Edgar, therefore, ordered that each of 
the princes of Wales, who had to pay tribute to 
the kings of England, should send, instead of 
money, three hundred wolves' heads every year ; 
so they were obliged to employ huntsmen to go 
into the woods to kill those dangerous animals, 
which were so generally destroyed in a few 
years that they have seldom been found in Eng- 
land ever since. 

13. Then Edgar kept the Danes away by 
having as many as three hundred and sixty 
vessels always ready for service; but, when he 
and Dunstan were dead the navy was neglected; 

5* 



54 the child's pictorial 

and the country was again overrun with those 
terrible enemies, who fought with the English 
every where, robbed them of their property, 
took their houses for themselves, and acted just 
as if they were the conquerors and lords of the 
land. 

14. At last, the Danish king, Sweyn, landed 
with a great army, and began a dreadful war 
with Ethelred, who was then king of England, 
that lasted about four years, in the course of 
which he and Ethelred both died ; but the war 
was continued by Canute, the son of Sweyn, and 
with such success, that, in the end, he was 
crowned kino; of England. 

15. It was lucky for the English that Canute 
happened to be a wise and good prince ; for he 
said to himself, " As I am now king of these 
people, I will behave kindly to them, that they 
may love me, and then we shall go on com- 
fortably together." So he began to repair the 
mischief that had been done in the late wars, 
by setting people to work to rebuild the towns 
that had been destroyed ; which was soon done 
in those days, when the houses were so roughly 
built, and only of wood. 

16. He also made a law that the Danes should 
not rob and insult the English, as they had been 
in the habit of doing ; and ordered that they 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 55 

should obey the other laws of the country ; 
which he did not alter in the least ; neither did 
he interfere with the estates of the nobles, nor 
with their rights over their vassals ; and he con- 
sulted with the Witanagemote, or Parliament, in 
all affairs of importance. 

17. This Parliament was composed of the 
great nobles and the bishops, so that it was like 
our House of Lords ; and, when the king made 
a new law, the people were not obliged to obey it, 
until it had been approved by the Witanage- 
mote. 

18. As long as Canute reigned, which was 
nineteen years, there were peace and plenty, and 
the poor people were much happier than they had 
been for a long time, for they could stay at home 
and mind their farms, or work at their trades, 
without being called away continually to fight 
the Danes. 

19. The king, it is true, kept a large army 
of Danish soldiers, and the people had to pay 
heavy taxes to support them; but this was 
better than seeing them come as enemies into 
the towns and villages to destroy or take every 
thing. 

20. After the death of Canute, his two sons 
reigned in succession, but they were neither very 



56 THE CHILD'S PICTORIAL. 

good nor very clever, and both died within six 
years. 

21. All this while there was a Saxon prince, 
named Edward, son of king Ethelred, living at 
the court of the Duke of Normandy, who was 
his uncle, and had afforded him shelter and pro- 
tection whilst his enemies were ruling in Eng- 
land. 

22. He was now restored to the throne, and 
the English people thought themselves happy in 
having again a king of their own nation ; but 
they little foresaw the terrible consequences of 
placing over them one who had formed so close 
a connection with the Normans. 

23. Edward was attached to the Normans, for 
they had been kind to him in his misfortunes ; 
but it was neither wise nor just to bring a great 
number of them to his court, and set them up 
above his own countrymen, by giving them the 
highest appointments in the government, which, 
of course, gave offence to the English noblemen. 

24. Edward was called the Confessor, because 
he spent much of his time in devotion. He 
rebuilt Westminster Abbey, which was founded 
during the Heptarchy; but this building was 
pulled down about 160 years afterwards, by 
Henry the Third, who erected the present edifice 
in its place. 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 57 

25. But I was going to tell you what happened 
in consequence of the king's attachment to the 
Normans. His uncle was dead, and his cousin 
William, a bold spirited prince, who was now 
Duke of Normandy, came over to England to 
visit the king, and see what sort of a place it 
was. 

26. He brought a great many noblemen with 
him, and it seems they all liked the country so 
much that the Duke thought he should like to 
be its king, and his friends thought they should 
like to get good estates here ; so king Edward 
was persuaded to make a will, or give his pro- 
mise, that, when he died, his cousin William, 
who was more than twenty years younger than 
himself, should be his successor. The English 
lords knew nothing about this at the time, but 
they had reason enough to know it afterwards, 
as you will presently find. 

27. Edward the Confessor died at the begin- 
ning of the year 1066, when Harold, his wife's 
brother, a brave and popular nobleman, took 
possession of the throne, with the consent of 
the chief nobles and clergy. 

QUESTIONS. 

1. Who succeeded Alfred ? 

2. Who was the next king ? 



58 the child's pictorial 

3. How was trade encouraged by him ? 

5. Tell nie the way of making purchases at this period. 

7. Were there any wars in the reign of Athelstan ? 

8. Who was Dunstan ? 

14. Who was Canute, and how did he obtain the throne ? 

16. What were the chief acts of Canute ? 

18. How long did Canute reign ? 

19. What was the general state of the country under his 

government ? 

20. Who succeeded Canute ? 

21. How was the Saxon government restored? 

23. How did the king displease his subjects ? 

24. Why was Edward called the Confessor ? 

27. When did Edward die, and who succeeded him ? 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



59 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 




DEATH OF HAROLD. 



1. As soon as the Duke of Normandy knew 
that Edward the Confessor was dead, and Harold 
made king, he called his friends together, and 
promised to bestow lands and honors in England 
on all who would assist him to win the crown ; 
which, he said, was his by right, and that Harold 
was an usurper. , 



60 THE child's pictorial 

2. Now this is a doubtful question ; for, 
although the king could appoint a successor, if 
he thought proper ; yet it was necessary that his 
choice should have the approval of the Witen- 
agemote, which had not been given in this case; 
so the English said that, notwithstanding king 
Edward's will, the Duke of Normandy had no 
right to the throne. 

3. I cannot pretend to say which was right ; 
but, as it is of more consequence to know how 
the dispute ended, we will proceed to the history 
of the conquest. 

4. The Normans were great warriors ; so that 
even many of the clergy would sometimes put 
on armour under their robes, and lead their own 
vassals to battle ; and they had as much interest 
in the dispute as the nobles, for they expected 
to come into possession of some of the Bishops' 
sees and rich abbey lands, provided Duke Wil- 
liam should succeed in his enterprise. 

5. While all this was going on in Normandy, 
Harold's brother, Tosti, had raised a rebellion 
in the north of England, and was joined by the 
king of Norway, who landed with an army in 
Yorkshire : so Harold had to go and fight with 
them, and there was a great battle at Stam- 
ford Bridge, where the king gained a complete 
victory. 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 61 

6. Two or three days after this he was enjoy- 
ing himself at a great feast, at York, when news 
was brought to him that the Normans had landed 
in Sussex, where they were doing all manner of 
mischief, driving the people away from the 
towns and villages, and taking every thing they 
could lay their hands on. 

7. The king made all the haste he could to 
get his soldiers together, and began his march 
to oppose the invaders, but it took nearly a fort- 
night to get to where they were ; and all that 
time the invaders were making dreadful havoc 
for miles round their camp, so that the terrified 
people fled to the woods, or shut themselves up 
in the churches, for fear of being killed. 

8. At last, Harold came, and a battle was 
fought near Hastings, on the 14th of October, 
1066, where the king and two of his brothers, 
with a great many of the English nobles, were 
slain, and the conqueror from that day looked 
upon himself as the master of the country. 

9. But the English had seen enough of the 
Normans to know that they should be very badly 
treated if they once suffered a Norman govern- 
ment to be established, so they resolved to do 
their utmost to prevent it, and thus the Normans 
had to fight for every town, and castle, before it 
was given up to them. 

6 



62 the child's pictorial 

10. William had marched to London, and laid 
siege to it, soon after the battle of Hastings, 
and the people having submitted to him, he was 
crowned in Westminster Abbey, on Christmas 



11. A few of the English nobles went to offer 
their submission, that is, they agreed to obey 
him as their king, since he had promised that all 
who did so should be permitted to enjoy their 
rank and property undisturbed. 

12. But it was only a few who trusted to these 
promises, and they were deceived in the end, for 
it is almost certain that the Conqueror intended, 
from the first, to take every thing from the Eng- 
lish to give to the Normans. 

13. I mean the English lords ; for he meant 
to make the common people remain on the estates 
to which they belonged, that the new masters 
might have vassals and slaves to cultivate their 
lands. 

14. Now the poor people did not like this any 
more than the nobles themselves, so they fought 
bravely for their masters in many places ; but it 
was all to no purpose ; for, at the end of seven 
years, the Normans were in possession of all the 
land in the country, and most of its former lords 
had either been killed, or were reduced to such 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 63 

a state of poverty and wretchedness that it is 
melancholy to think of. 

15. I will not attempt to describe the suffer- 
ings of the people during that long period, but 
you may imagine how very miserable they must 
have been, for the Normans got the better of 
them all over the country, and took delight in 
robbing and insulting their unhappy victims. 

16. I told you that the design of the Con- 
queror was to take all the land, and divide it 
among his followers, except what he chose to 
keep for himself, as crown lands. 

17. Now there were many Saxon ladies who 
possessed estates, in consequence of their fathers 
or brothers having been killed at the battle of 
Hastings ; and most of these heiresses were com- 
pelled, against their will, to marry Norman 
lords, who thus gained lands as well as brides. 

18. Then the estates of all those who had not 
submitted to the king were declared to be for- 
feited, and William gave them to the Normans, 
or, more properly speaking, he gave the Barons 
leave to take them by force ; so the English lords 
had to fight for their houses and lands, and many 
were killed, and many fled to other countries. 

19. The rustics, on these forfeited estates, 
would fight for their lord to the last ; but, when 
he was forced to yield, they had no choice but 



64 THE child's pictorial 

to submit to the new lord, or to see their cot- 
tages set on fire, and their wives and children 
perhaps murdered before their eyes. 

20. Some of the English nobles hid in the 
forests with their families, and as many of 
their vassals as would go with them, where they 
made habitations, and supported themselves by 
robbery and hunting ; and this was the origin 
of the numerous bands of robbers that, in after 
times, were the terror of the country. 

21. The famous Robin Hood, who lived in 
the reign of Richard the First, is supposed to 
have been a descendant of one of these unfortu- 
nate English nobles. 

22. The Bishops' sees and abbey lands were 
seized in the same violent manner, as the estates 
of the nobles, and given to the Norman clergy; 
and many of the monasteries, after being broken 
open and plundered, were taken for the abode 
of monks who came over from Normandy in 
great numbers. 

23. The Normans built a great many castles 
in different parts of the country ; and, if they 
wanted to build one on a spot where there hap- 
pened to be houses, they thought nothing of 
turning out the inhabitants, and pulling down 
the houses, to make room : and they pressed the 
poor people, both men and women, to do all the 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 65 

labour, without pay, and treated them very- 
cruelly besides ; for, if they did not work hard 
enough, these unfeeling taskmasters would urge 
them on with blows. 

24. Then wherever the Norman soldiers stayed, 
they went and lived in the houses of the people, 
took what they pleased, and made the family 
wait upon them. 

25. The king, himself, cruelly laid waste dif- 
ferent parts of the country in revenge for the 
opposition made to his progress by some of the 
English earls, especially in the north, where, 
about three years after the battle of Hastings, 
such a scene of desolation was made by fire and 
sword, that, from York to Durham, the houses, 
the people, and all signs of cultivation, were 
utterly destroyed. 

26. The last stand made against the Normans 
was in a little island, formed by bogs and lakes, 
in Cambridgeshire, and still called the Isle of 
Ely. There, a brave chief, named Hereward, 
set up a fortified camp, and was joined by other 
noblemen, and many of their dependents, who, 
with the ceorls, or tenants, belonging to the 
Abbey of Ely, made quite an army. 

27. It was a secure place of refuge, because 
the only safe paths into the island were un- 
known to the Normans, who would most likely 

6* 



66 THE child's pictorial 

have been lost in the bogs, if they had ventured 
to approach. 

28. But they had built a castle close by, at 
Cam Bridge, and they brought boats and tried 
to make causeways by which they might get into 
the camp of refuge ; but the English would go 
out in bands at night and destroy all that their 
enemies had done, and kept constantly on the 
watch for straggling parties, who were often 
attacked unawares, and many of them killed, 
while the English could always retreat to their 
camp, where they were safe from pursuit. 

29. At last the Normans established a block- 
ade of boats round the island, and provisions 
began to get scarce within it ; so two or three 
bad selfish men, who lived in the abbey, went to 
the Normans at Cam Bridge, and said, they 
would show them the way into the island, if 
they would promise not to meddle with the 
abbey. 

30. These men led the Normans secretly into 
the island, and a terrible battle was fought, in 
which almost all the English were killed. 

31. When Here ward saw it was useless to 
fight any longer, he made his escape, and went 
to his own castle of Bourn, in Lincolnshire ; 
where I believe, he afterwards made peace with 
the king, and was allowed to keep his estate. 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 67 

32. I have given you a long history of the 
Conquest, because it was the most important 
event that ever occurred in the history of 
England, and was the last sudden and violent 
change made in this country by foreign invasion. 

QUESTIONS. 

1. Explain the cause of the Norman invasion ? 

8. What was the battle of Hastings, and where was it 

fought ? 

9. Did the English make any further resistance ? 

14. How long was it before the conquest was completed ? 
18. How did many of the Norman lords obtain their estates? 
20. What became of the English nobles ? 
23. How were the English treated by the Norman soldiers ? 
26. What was the Camp of Refuge, and by whom estab- 
lished ? 
31. What became of Hereward? 



68 



THE CHILD'S PICTORIAL 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE NORMAN PERIOD. — 1087 TO 1154. 




DEATH OF WILLUM EUFUS. 



1. The Normans were a cleverer people than 
the English, and lived in a superior manner. 
They were better acquainted with the arts of 
agriculture and architecture, and they knew a 
great deal more about useful gardening ; for all 
the convents in Normandy had good gardens, 
planted with vegetables and herbs; and the 



IIISTORY OF ENGLAND. . 69 

monks brought over plenty of seeds and roots to 
sow or plant in gardens here. 

2. The Normans built stone castles, and 
strong houses of timber, with upper stories, so 
that their dwellings, in general, were higher and 
more substantial than those of the Saxons ; and 
one great improvement was that they had chim- 
neys ; but their furniture was as rough and 
clumsy as the furniture used in the Saxon 
times, and their way of living was almost the 
same, except that they did not care so much 
about feasting, but preferred spending their 
time in hunting, hawking, and fighting in sport, 
for pastime. 

3. I should here tell you that William the 
Conqueror made the first game laws, and very 
severe they were, and very hard upon the poor 
people, who used to be at liberty to kill game in 
the forests ; but, after these new laws, they 
dared not so much as take even a hare or par- 
tridge in their own fields. 

4. It was not only the English, who were for- 
bidden to hunt on the royal domains, but the 
Normans also, unless they had special leave to 
do so ; and, if any one was bold enough to kill 
a deer in the king's forests, he was punished in 
the most cruel manner, by having his eyes put 
out, or his hands cut off. 



70 THE CHILD'S PICTORIAL 

5. The king's palace was at Winchester, and 
he wanted to have a forest close by for hunting, 
so he ordered that all the towns and villages 
should he pulled down for about thirty miles, and 
the land planted with trees ; and, what was 
worse, he gave nothing to the poor people for 
turning them out of their homes; and this is 
still called the New Forest. 

6. In imitation of this bad example, many of 
the nobles began to make large parks, enclosed 
with walls to keep deer, and they cared no more 
than William had done about taking away the 
fields and pasture lands of the poor cottagers, 
who dared not complain, and were even obliged 
to run to their doors with refreshments to offer 
to the Norman lords and their followers when 
they were out hunting, although they often 
saw them riding over their corn, and breaking 
through their hedges. 

7. It was not till after several reigns that the 
descendants of the Norman Conquerors began 
to consider themselves Englishmen, and to treat 
their vassals more like fellow countrymen. 

8. The first hundred years after the conquest 
is therefore usually called the Norman period, 
and includes the reigns of William the Con- 
queror, William Rufus, Henry the First, and 
Stephen. 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 71 

9. I have already told you that the Feudal 
system was brought into England by the Saxons, 
and I explained what it was ; but I must now 
mention that this system was carried much 
farther by the Normans, that is, their feudal 
laws were stricter, and the nobles themselves 
were bound by them as well as the common 
people. 

10. I should wish you to understand this as 
clearly as possible, because the manners and 
customs of the age were governed entirely by 
those laws. 

11. First, then, the king was lord of the land, 
and kept a great portion of it for himself, which 
made what were called crown lands ; and all the 
people, who lived on the crown lands, whether in 
burgh, town, or country, were his tenants, and 
paid him rent, or taxes, both in money and pro- 
duce, besides being obliged to furnish him with 
soldiers at their own expense. 

12. For example, if a town had to find two 
or more horse-soldiers, the inhabitants were, be- 
sides, obliged to pay the expenses of their arms, 
horses and maintenance, for the time they were 
on service. 

13. The Manors and Abbey lands were held of 
the king on the same conditions ; and every man, 
who had a certain quantity of land, was bound 



72 the child's pictorial 

either to serve as a soldier himself, or send a 
substitute. 

14. The rest of the country was divided by 
the king amongst the great barons, who agreed, 
in return, that whenever he went to war they 
would go with him, and take with them so many 
men, properly armed and trained for warfare, 
perhaps fifty or a hundred, or even more, accord- 
ing to the extent of lands they held. 

15. These great Baronies were called Feods, 
and the king was the feodal or feudal lord of the 
barons, who were called crowned vassals ; and, 
when any one of them died, the king took the 
lands again until the heir paid him a large sum 
of money to redeem them. 

16. Some of the kings behaved very ill in 
this, in making the heirs pay a great deal more 
than was just ; and, if a baron died, and left a 
daughter only, she was obliged to marry any one 
the king chose, or he would not let her have her 
inheritance at all. 

17. The feudal laws were therefore very bad, 
because they gave men the power of being 
tyrants to each other; for the nobles had the 
same power of oppressing their vassals that the 
king had of oppressing them. 

18. You must understand that the great 
Barons, who held very extensive domains, gave 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 73 

small estates out of them to men who were not 
so high in rank as themselves, on the same con- 
ditions as the king had given the large baronies 
to them, so that the lesser nobles were the vas- 
sals of the great ones, and were bound to aid 
them with men and money when required. 

19. Then all the nobles, from the highest to 
the lowest degree, were the absolute lords of all 
the common people that dwelt on their lands, 
and could make them do just whatever they 
pleased, as I told you they could in the Saxon 
times ; but then the Norman lords treated them, 
at first, a great deal more harshly than the 
Saxon lords did, and took a great deal more from 
them. 

20. After the Norman conquest they wero 
called villeins, which meant villagers, and they 
lived in the same manner, and had the same kind 
of duties to perform for their lords, as in the* 
Saxon times ; but there were many new feudal' 
customs brought here by the Normans ; as for 
example, a mill was set up on every estate, to 
which all the poor people were obliged to take 
their corn to be ground, instead of grinding it 
at home with hand-mills, as they used to do ; 
and, out of each measure, a part was taken for 
the baron, which was a very hard tax upon them, 
especially if they had large families. 



74 THE child's pictoeial 

21. Another feudal custom was this ; a duty 
was laid on every thing sold at the fairs and 
markets ; that is,- if a man went to the market 
to buy a sheep, he must pay so much for the 
sheep, and so much for duty, the duty being for 
the baron, or lord of the manor. 

22. There were a great many other customs 
which I have not room to mention, but I think 
I have said enough to show you what the feudal 
system was in the first ages after the Norman 
conquest ; so now I will tell you something about 
the first Norman sovereigns. 

23. William the Conqueror died in 1087, and 
was succeeded by his eldest son, Robert, in 
Normandy, and by his second son, William 
Rufus, in England ; but after a time Duke Ro- 
bert wanted money to go to 'the Holy Wars, 
which I will tell you about presently, so he 
mortgaged his duchy of Normandy to his brother 
William, who thus became sovereign of both 
countries, as his father had been. He was a sad 
tyrant, and so rude in his manners that nobody 
liked him. 

24. I told you what strict game laws were 
made by the Conqueror, but William Rufus made 
them more severe still, and so displeased the no- 
blemen, by forbidding them to hunt without his 
leave, that some of them formed a conspiracy to 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 75 

dethrone him ; but the plot was discovered, and 
the Earl of Northumberland, who was at the 
head of it, was taken prisoner, and confined in 
"Windsor Castle all the rest of his life. 

25. There was another great lord, the Count 
d'Eu, who was accused of being engaged in this 
plot, by a knight called Geoffrey Bainard, so the 
king had him arrested. The Count, however, 
denied having any thing to do with it, and said 
he defied his accuser, and was ready to fight 
with him, and that God would give the victory 
te whichever of them was in the right. 

26. So they fought with swords, in the pre- 
sence of the king and court, when Bainard was 
victorious, and the Count being thus convicted, 
was condemned to have his eyes torn out. 

27. This was a strange way for a man to 
prove his innocence of any crime, but it became 
a common custom in England, and was called 
"Wager of battle." Even law-suits, respecting 
right of property, were often thus decided; and, 
if a lady had a quarrel or a lawsuit, she might 
get a man to do battle for her, and he was called 
her champion. 

28. It was the fashion for many ages, not 
only in England, but all over Europe, for yotmg 
men of noble birth to roam about the world in 
search of adventures ; and, as they were gene- 



76 THE child's pictorial 

rally poor and depended chiefly on their swords 
for subsistence, they would engage in any body's 
quarrels ; fight in the cause of women or chil- 
dren who were either injured or oppressed, and 
enlist in the service of princes and barons who 
were at war. 

29. This was called chivalry, and these knights 
errant, or wandering knights, were made wel- 
come wherever they went, and treated with hos- 
pitality at the castles of the great. 

30. Numbers of them went to the Holy Wars, 
but, as I suppose you do not know what the 
Holy Wars were, I will tell you about them. 

31. Many pious Christians in those days 
thought it a duty to make a journey, or pilgrim- 
age as it was called, to Jerusalem, once in their 
lives, to say their prayers at our Saviour's tomb ; 
but Jerusalem had been conquered by the Ma- 
homedans, who hated the Christians, and be- 
haved very cruelly to the pilgrims; so the Pope, 
who you know is the great Bishop of Rome, and 
at that time had more authority over all the 
countries of Europe than the kings had, said 
that it was the duty of all Christian warriors to 
go to Palestine, or the Holy Land, to fight 
against the Saracens, and try to drive them from 
Jerusalem. 

32. Then a religious man, called Peter the 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 77 

Hermit, went about preaching a crusade, that is, 
exhorting the princes and nobles in France, 
Germany, and Italy, to undertake this war, 
which was called a crusade, or croisade, because 
the ensign on their banners was to be the Cross. 

33. Robert, Duke of Normandy, was among 
the first crusaders, and, as he wanted money to 
keep himself and all the fighting men he took 
with him, he pledged his duchy to his brother, 
William Rufus, for a very large sum. 

34. The English did not join in these wars, at 
first, but after a time there was scarcely a knight 
or noble in the land that did not go to the Cru- 
sades, for they were continued, in all, more than 
two hundred years ; and, during two hundred 
years ; and, during that time, great numbers of 
the lower order of people in England were freed 
from bondage, in consequence of being allowed 
to purchase their liberty to supply their lords 
with money for these wars. 

35. William Rufus, who was killed by accident 
as he was hunting in the New Forest, was suc- 
ceeded by his brother, Henry the First, sur- 
named Beauclerk, because he was a learned man, 
who behaved much better to the Saxon English 
than the two former kings had done, and re- 
stored to some of the old families a part of their 
ancient possessions. 

7* 



78 TIIE CHILD S PICTORIAL 

36. He likewise altered the forest laws, which 
had given so much discontent, and gave the 
citizens of London leave to hunt in Epping 
Forest, which then reached very nearly to the 
walls of the city. 

37. Winchester was then the capital of Eng- 
land, but London was one of the best cities and 
the richest, as many of its inhabitants were mer- 
chants who traded with foreign countries ; yet 
the houses were only mean wooden buildings, 
with no glass in the windows, and thatched with 
straw. 

38. Westminster was quite a separate city, and 
divided from London by country houses, fields 
and a village. The king had a palace at West- 
minster, and William Rufus built Westminster 
hall adjoining it, for his Christmas feasts. 

39. A curious privilege was granted by Henry 
the First to the citizens of London, which will 
serve to show you what grievances the people 
were subject to in those times. 

40. There were a great number of persons 
who were employed in various ways about the 
court, and who followed the king wherever he 
went ; for great men, when they travelled, were 
obliged to take every thing they wanted with 
them, there being no public accommodation to 
be had any where ; so they carried with them 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 79 

waggon loads of furniture, plate, wine, cooking 
utensils, and I do not know what besides ; with 
their domestics and retainers of all descriptions, 
who formed a numerous retinue. 

41. Now, the inhabitants of any city, where 
the king happened to be holding his court, were 
obliged to give board and lodging, at free cost, 
to all these people, who generally behaved very 
ill ; for they would insist upon having the best 
rooms, order whatever they chose, and treat the 
family just as if they were their servants. 

42. It was, therefore, a very good thing for 
the Londoners when king Henry released them 
from this heavy burthen, but all other towns had 
to bear it for a very long period. 

48. In this reign the first manufactory for 
woollen cloth was established in this country, by 
some weavers from Flanders, where the best 
cloth was made from English wool, which was 
the staple commodity of England at that period; 
I mean, the thing of which they had most to 
sell ; for quantities of sheep were reared on every 
estate. 

44. England had no manufactures then, so 
there were no employments for the lower classes 
but agriculture, and the few useful arts, that 
were but very imperfectly understood. 

45. Henry the First died in the year 1135. 



80 THE child's pictorial 

He left the crown to his daughter Matilda, who 
had been twice married; first, to the Emperor 
of Germany, and again to Geoffrey Plantagenet, 
Earl of Anjou, who was dead also, therefore she 
was again a widow. 

46. But there was a nephew of the late king, 
named Stephen, who was rather a favorite among 
the Barons, and was quite willing to take advan- 
tage of their good will ; so, before Matilda could 
reach England, her cousin Stephen had mounted 
the throne. 

47. Then there was a civil war in this coun- 
try, which was carried on, at times, for fifteen 
years, for a great many French noblemen came 
here with Matilda to fight for her ; and some of 
the English Barons, who had become dissatisfied 
with Stephen, because he had not done all they 
expected he would do, joined the other party, 
and there was fighting all over the country. 

48. Wherever there is civil war, there is sure 
to be famine and misery of all kinds, and there 
never was more misery in England than during 
the reign of king Stephen ; for, in order to keep 
as many of the Barons on his side as he could, 
he let them do just as they pleased ; and he gave 
titles and estates to a great many bold and bad 
men, who built castles and kept bands of ruffians, 
who went at night to rob and plunder the towns 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 81 

and villages ; so that the peeple, when they shut 
up their houses at night, used to kneel down and 
pray that God would protect them from robbers 
and murderers. 

49. At last, it was settled that Stephen should 
keep the crown as long as he lived ; but that 
Matilda's son, Henry Plantagenet, should suc- 
ceed him ; and, soon after this arrangement, he 
died, having reigned nineteen years. 

QUESTIONS. 

1, How did the Normans improve the country? 

3. What is the origin of the game laws ? 

5. How was the New Forest made ? 

8. Which reigns are called the Norman period ? 
15. When a baron died, how were his lands disposed of ? 
18. How did the lesser barons become vassals of the great 

ones ? 
21. What new feudal customs were brought here by the 

Normans? 
23. Who succeeded William the Conqueror ? 
28. What was chivalry ? 
31. Give some account of the Crusades. 

35. Who succeeded William Rufus ? 

36. How did he gain popularity ? 

43. W T hat was the first manufacture in England? 

45. To whom did Henry leave the crown ? 

46. Who usurped the throne ? 



82 



THE CHILD S PICTORIAL 



CHAPTER IX. 

HENRY THE SECOND, RICHARD THE FIRST, AND 
JOHN.— 1154 TO 1216. 




JOHN SIGNING THE MAGNA CHARTA. 



1. As soon as Henry the Second came to the 
throne, he began to set things to rights again. 
He had all the new castles pulled down, and 
made the bad men who had lived in them, leave 
the country; then he set people to work to 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 83 

rebuild the towns that had been burned down in 
the late wars ; and ordered that the judges 
should go on circuits; that is,. travel to all the 
cities, and hold assizes, two or three times a 
year, as they do now, to see that justice is done 
to every body. 

2. But it was not quite so easy to do justice 
then ; for, as long as the feudal laws lasted, the 
rich could always oppress the poor, and every 
great man had an army of his own vassals, who 
would do any thing he bade them, whether it 
was lawful or not. 

3. Now the king wisely thought that the best 
thing in the world for the country would be to 
give more freedom to the people, so that the 
Barons might not have quite so much power. 

4. He, therefore, granted charters to some of 
the cities, which made them a little more inde- 
pendent ; but it was by very slow degrees that 
the people of England became free, although 
this happy change was beginning to take place. 

5. Another thing the king wanted to do, was 
to make the clergy answerable to the judges for 
any bad acts they might commit, instead of 
having particular laws and judges for them- 

• selves ; and, I am sorry to say, they sometimes 
did very wicked things, for which they were not 
punished half so severely as other people would 



84 the child's pictorial 

have been for similar offences, which certainly 
was unjust. 

6. But the bishops were unwilling to let the 
king have any thing to do with church affairs, 
and the Pope encouraged them to oppose him, 
in this respect ; for the Pope, in those days, had 
more power over all Europe than the kings 
themselves, who seldom dared to disobey him. 

7. The person who quarrelled most with 
Henry about these things was Thomas & Becket, 
archbishop of Canterbury, a very proud man, 
who wanted to rule both king and state his own 
way. 

8. The king was so much annoyed at the op- 
position he constantly met with from the arch- 
bishop, that one day, in a fit of passion, he said 
he wished that troublesome priest was dead ; on 
which some persons, who heard these incautious 
words thinking to get into favor, rode off to 
Canterbury, and killed the archbishop in his 
Cathedral. 

9. But they gained nothing by this wicked 
deed ; for the king was shocked when he heard 
of it, and sorry for what he had said ; which 
shows how wrong it is for people to use violent 
expressions when they feel angry. 

10. One very remarkable event which occurred 
in this reign, was the conquest of Ireland. That 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 85 

country had been, for many years, divided into 
several small kingdoms, and the disputes of the 
chiefs had often given rise to warfare among 
themselves ; but it now happened that the king 
of Leinster, having been deposed by another 
prince, went direct to the king of England, to 
beg his assistance, which Henry readily pro- 
mised, on condition that, if he were restored, he 
should hold his kingdom as a vassal of the Eng- 
lish crown. 

11. Dermot, that was the name of the Irish 
prince, agreed to these terms, and several Eng- 
lish knights and noblemen undertook the enter- 
prise. After a great many interesting adven- 
tures, which are told in the history of Ireland, 
Dermot was replaced on his throne ; but other 
quarrels arising among the chiefs, the English 
continued the war, and, after some time, the 
Irish chiefs acknowledged the king of England 
as a lord and master of Ireland, which has been 
under the authority of the English government 
ever since. 

12. Henry the Second died in 1189, and was 
succeeded by his son Richard, who was called 
Coeur-de-lion, because he was very brave, so that 
every body said he had the heart of a lion. 

13. Now it is a very good thing for men to be 
brave, for I do not know what we should do 

8 



86 THE child's pictorial 

without brave men for soldiers and sailors, to 
fight for us ; but it is not the most useful quality 
a king can possess ; and I think you will agree 
with me, when I tell you that Richard the First, 
instead of staying at home to make good laws, 
and take care of his subjects, went away to fight, 
or gain glory, as fighting was then called, in the 
Holy Land, while all things were going wrong 
in England, for the want of somebody to keep 
order. 

14. But there was some excuse for him, as 
every body in those days thought that the most 
praiseworthy act princes and nobles could do, 
was to fight for their religion against all persons 
who believed differently from themselves; so 
Richard was very much admired by his people, 
although he did nothing for their real benefit ; 
but, on the contrary, caused them very much 
misery, and great distress. 

15. Another evil was that the Barons, who 
went with him to the Crusades, took all their 
own money as well as all they could get from 
their tenants, to support themselves and their 
fighting men abroad, so that the generality of 
the people were left very poor. 

16. A great number, indeed, obtained their 
freedom, by giving up all they had to their lords ; 
but then they were left without money or em- 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 87 

ployment, and many turned robbers, to save 
themselves from starving ; therefore, you see, it 
was not always a good thing, at first, for the bond- 
men to be set at liberty ; but it was good in the 
end, for their children were born free, and, as 
times got better, the free middle classes began to 
be of some consequence, and have gone on gra- 
dually increasing in wealth and importance, till 
they have now become the best safeguard and 
support of the country. 

17. While Richard was gone to the wars, his 
brother John, who was a very bad man, wanted 
to make himself king in England, and there 
were some of the nobles who encouraged him, 
while others defended the rights of the absent 
monarch ; so that there was great confusion, and 
the laws were sadly disregarded. 

18. At last, Richard heard of all these bad 
doings, and left the Holy Land, intending to 
come home as fast as he could ; but, unfortu- 
nately, he was made prisoner, on his way, by 
the Duke of Austria, and confined in a castle in 
Germany for some time before the English people 
knew what had become of him. 

19. Richard knew this duke was his enemy, 
because he had affronted him when in the Holy 
Land, so he had taken the precaution of disguis- 
ing himself in passing through his dominions, 



88 THE child's pictorial 

and took with him only a single page ; but, one 
day, being tired and hungry, he stopped to rest 
at a village near Vienna, and sent his page into 
that city to buy some provisions. 

20. The youth, foolishly, hung a pair of hand- 
some gloves in his belt, and as gloves were, in 
those days, only worn by persons of the highest 
rank, this circumstance excited suspicion, and 
he was arrested, and obliged to confess the 
truth. 

21. The duke immediately sent a band of 
soldiers to seize the king, whom they found busy 
turning some meat that was roasting at the fire. 

22. He started up, drew his sword, and fought 
valiantly, but was captured, and sent to a strong 
fortress, where he had remained a prisoner some 
months, when he was discovered, it has been 
stated, by a wandering minstrel, who heard him 
singing in his prison, and knew his voice. But 
this is a fabulous tale. 

23. A large sum was raised in England, by 
taxes, for his ransom, and he came back ; but 
he did not stay long at home ; for he had quar- 
relled, while in the Holy Land, with the king of 
France, and went over to Normandy for the 
purpose of going to war with him, where he was 
killed by a poisoned arrow, aimed at him from 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 89 

the walls of a castle he was besieging, in the 
year 1199, having reigned ten years. 

24. Prince John was now made king of Eng- 
land, but he had no lawful right to the throne, 
as prince Arthur, the orphan son of an elder 
brother, was living, and was the true heir, ac- 
cording to the rules of succession. 

25. But this unfortunate prince was made 
prisoner, in Normandy, by his wicked uncle, 
and most people believe he met with a violent 
death. 

26. It was a very serious misfortune for the 
country when the king happened to be a bad 
man, because the government was, at that time, 
despotic ; that is, the king made the laws him- 
self, and had the power of doing whatever he 
pleased ; whereas, now, the laws are made by the 
parliament ; so that, before any new act can be 
passed, a great many good and clever men must 
agree to it, which is a great protection to the 
people. 

27. However, king John was compelled much 
against his will, to make some very good laws, 
and the reason of this was, that his tyranny 
was felt by the nobles even more than the com- 
mon people, for their estates were often un- 
justly seized, and they were obliged to give 
him large sums of money to get them back 

8* 



90 THE child's pictorial 

again ; then he would not let them marry unless 
they paid him for leave to do so ; and if any 
person wanted to go out of the country, they 
were obliged to buy his permission. In short, 
no one was free to do any thing till the consent 
of the king was obtained by a handsome present. 

28. At length, his tyranny was carried to 
such a height that the chief nobles resolved to 
make him act more justly, or dethrone him ; so 
they wrote down, on parchment, all the things 
they wished to have done, or altered, and agreed 
with each other that, if he refused to sign it, 
they would go to war with him, and they took 
care to have all their vassals armed, and in 
readiness. 

29. John was very much frightened when he 
found the barons were in earnest, and agreed to 
meet them at a place called llunnymede, between 
Staines and Windsor, where, after a great deal 
of disputing, he was obliged to sign his name to 
what they had written, which thus became the 
law of the land. An ancient copy of this parch 
ment is now in the British Museum. 

30. It is called Magna Charta, which is the 
Latin name for 'the Great Charter;' and it was 
framed with a view to take from the king the 
power of doing unjust things, and to make him 
govern according to the laws, and not to be able 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 91 

to make new laws, or impose new taxes, at his 
pleasure. 

31. This famous act is generally regarded as 
the beginning of the liberty which all English- 
men are so justly proud of; but the laws it 
contained were, in many respects often broken 
by the sovereigns of England, for a very long 
period. 

32. The Barons of England still lived in their 
castles, on their own estates, in the midst of 
their vassals and serfs. Their castle-halls were 
crowded with knights, squires, pages, and mili- 
tary dependents, for it was their pride to have 
as many of such retainers as they could pos- 
sibly maintain. The pages were boys of high 
rank,' generally the younger sons of noblemen, 
whose profession was to be knight errantry. 

33. Now, in order to obtain the honour of 
knighthood, they were obliged to serve some 
great baron, first as pages, then as esquires, for 
several years, and to be very obedient and re- 
spectful in their conduct, and do all that was 
required of them readily and cheerfully. 

34. While pages, they had to wait upon their 
lords and his guests at dinner * and supper, to 
carry messages, and perform little services for 
the ladies of the family ; but they were them- 
selves waited upon by the domestic slaves, and, 



92 THE child's pictorial 

when they had finished their day's duties, were 
allowed to mix with the company. 

35. They were taught to use the sword and 
lance, and to manage a horse skilfully, and were 
instructed in religious duties by the priests of 
their lord's household. 

36. When old enough, they were made 
esquires, and then their duties were to take care 
of the horses and armour, and to attend their 
lords on all occasions ; which services he usually 
rewarded by making them knights, when they 
were free to go wherever they pleased ; and you 
have already been told what their mode of life 
was afterwards. 

37. The great people were very fond of hunt- 
ing and hawking, and fighting at tournaments ; 
but, perhaps, you do not know what a tourna- 
ment was, so I will tell you. 

38. There was a place built up, something 
like a large theatre, with galleries for the ladies 
and gentlemen, to sit and see the combats in the 
open space below, and this was called the lists. 
Then the gentlemen, who wished to exhibit their 
valour, used to come in armour, and fight with 
each other on horseback till one was conquered, 
when the victor received a prize from the greatest 
lady present. 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 93 

39. When only two knights fought, it was 
called a tilt ; but if there were several on each 
side, it was a tournament ; and, although these 
combats were held for sport, the combatants 
were often dangerously wounded, and sometimes 
killed. 

40. When John had signed Magna Charta, the 
Barons went home to their castles, to enjoy 
their usual pleasures ; but the king had no inten- 
tion of behaving any better than before, and 
secretly sent agents to Flanders, to raise troops 
of foreigners, promising that they should be 
allowed to plunder the estates of the Barons, if 
they would enlist in his service. 

41. Thus he soon appeared at the head of an 
army, and went to war with the nobles, who, in 
revenge, did a very wrong and foolish thing, 
which was, to offer the crown to Louis, the son 
of the king of France. 

42. Louis soon came over with a French army, 
and, after having in vain tried to take Dover 
Castle, he entered London in triumph, whilst 
John was obiged to retreat ; but the Barons be- 
gan to think they had done wrong, and, as John 
died suddenly, in the midst of this confusion, 
they turned their arms against Louis, and forced 
him to leave the country. 



94 THE child's pictorial 



questions. 

1. "What were the first acts of Henry the Second ? 

7. Who was Thomas a Becket ? 

8. How was the death of Becket caused ? 
10. What conquest was made in this reign ? 

12. When did Henry die, and who succeeded him 

13. How did Richard employ the chief part of his reign ? 
17. What occurred in England during his absence ? 

22. What happened to the king on his way home ? 

23. State the date and manner of his death. 

24. Who was the next king ? 
27. How did the king act towards the nobles ? 
30. What was Magna Charta ? 
40. What did the king do after he had signed that Cnarter ? 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



95 



CHAPTER X. 

from the death of king john to the 

accession of richard the second. 

1216 to 1399. 




DEATH OF LLEWELLYN. 



1. The reign of Henry the Third, who was 
only nine years of age when he succeeded his 
father, was a very long and a very unhappy one. 

2. At first, things went on very well, because 
the king had a good guardian, the Earl of Pern- 



96 the child's pictorial 

broke, who managed the government wisely; but 
he, in a few years, died, and others came into 
power who did not act so well, and the king was 
too young to know what was right himself. 

3. It was a pity the good earl died, for, if 
Henry had been fortunate enough to have had 
a wise instructer, he might have been a better 
sovereign, but, as it was, he was a very bad one. 

4. The great mischief was this. He married 
a French princess, who had no more wisdom than 
himself ; and they were both so extravagant that 
they spent a great deal more money than they 
could afford ; and, then, to get fresh supplies, 
the king ordered the people to pay more taxes, 
and began to do all the unjust things that had 
caused so much misery in the time of his father. 

5. Sometimes the Barons assembled and 
obliged him to promise he would abide by the 
terms of Magna Charta ; but he soon forgot his 
promises, and went on the same as before, so 
that the people were worse and worse off every 
year, and many men became robbers on the 
highways, because they could not support their 
families by honest industry. 

6. This was the state of affairs for many 
years, till at last, there was a civil war again, 
and, after a great deal of fighting and bloodshed, 
the king and his eldest son, Edward, were made 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 97 

prisoners in a battle, fought at Lewes, in Sussex, 
in 1264, and the Earl of Leicester, the king's 
brother-in-law, took the government upon him- 
self. 

7. This was an important event, because the 
earl summoned a parliament to consult as to 
what it would be best to do under these circum- 
stances ; and he desired that, besides the nobles 
and bishops, there should come to this parliament 
knights, or gentlemen from every county, and 
citizens and burghers, from every city and burgh 
to state what the condition of the people really 
was, and to help to advise what could be done 
for them ; so that the commoners were now, pro- 
bably, for the first time, admitted to some share 
in the government of the country, which was a 
great step gained by the people, who, before 
this, had no representatives in the national 
council, or parliament, to take their part ; and 
this was the beginning of our House of Com- 
mons, so it is worth remembering. 

8. Prince Edward, after this, escaped from 
Hereford, where he had been kept a prisoner, 
and gained a great victory over the Barons, and 
replaced his father Henry on the throne ; after 
which, he went on a crusade to the Holy Land. 

9. He had married a Spanish princess, named 
Eleanor, who was the first person, in England, 

9 



98 THE child's pictorial 

that had a carpet, which she brought from Spain, 
for the floors of the best apartments in the 
palace were strewed with rushes ; and, in houses, 
where they could not get rushes, they used 
straw. 

10. Henry the Third died about seven years 
after his restoration, in the year 1272, having 
reigned fifty-seven years; and, although the 
news was sent to his son as soon as possible, it 
was nearly two years before he returned to Eng- 
land ; such was the difference between travelling 
then and now ; for the journey to and from the 
Holy Land may now be accomplished in a few 
weeks. 

11. Edward the First was a much wiser and 
better prince than his father, but he was too fond 
of war, and too anxious to be renowned as a con- 
queror, which was the cause of the long wars in 
Scotland, for his great ambition was to conquor 
that country. 

12. But, the first thing he thought of, when 
he came home, was to make such regulations as 
were most likely to protect the people from rob- 
bery ; so he had watchmen and patrols appointed 
in all the cities, and ordered that nobody should 
be abroad in the streets of London, nor any 
taverns kept open, after the curfew bell had 
tolled. 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 99 

13. The curfew was instituted by William the 
Conqueror, to prevent fires, which were very 
frequent, when houses were in general built of 
wood, and thatched ; so, when this bell tolled at 
eight o'clock, the people, for a long time after 
the conquest, were obliged to put out their fires 
and candles ; but the custom of tolling the bell 
was continued after that of putting out fire and 
candle was done away with, and even to this day, 
in many places. 

14. Edward the First took care that the ma- 
gistrates should do their duty, and punished those 
who broke the laws, which the kings had been 
afraid to do in the last two reigns, because their 
lives would have been in danger if they had. 

15. I must also tell you that this wise monarch 
did not alter what the Earl of Leicester had 
done about the parliament ; but he made it a rule 
that the people should continue to send their 
members, and every freeholder of land in the 
counties, and, in general, all men, in the cities 
and burghs, who paid taxes, had a right to vote 
at the election of members of parliament. 

16. I should be glad to have nothing to say 
about warfare in this reign ; but the Scottish 
wars form so large a portion of the history of 
the times, that you ought to know something 
about them. 



100 THE CHILD'S PICTORIAL 

IT. First, however, the king invaded the 
northern part of Wales, which had never been 
conquered by the English, and was then gov- 
erned by a prince, named Llewellyn. 

18. This chief made a gallant resistance, but 
he was killed, and the whole country was then 
united to England, and afterwards, in the reign 
of Henry the Eighth, divided into shires. 

19. The queen, Eleanor, of Castile, Edward's 
first wife, went to visit "Wales soon afterwards, 
and her son Edward was born there, so the king 
said he should be called prince of Wales, and 
that is the reason why the eldest son of the 
English sovereign has since had that title. 

20. After this, there were a few years of 
peace, before the wars with Scotland were begun ; 
so I will fill up the time by saying a little about 
the manners and customs of the English at this 
period. 

21. The nobles lived in, what we should think, 
a very rough way indeed. Their large comfort- 
less rooms, and floors without carpets, unglazed 
windows, and clumsy furniture, would not suit 
our modern notions, either of comfort or conve- 
nience. 

22. They had their dinner at ten o'clock in 
the morning, in the great hall of the castle ; 
lords, ladies, knights, esquires, priests, depend- 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 101 

ents, and strangers, all together ; for, when there 
were no inns, it was usual for travellers to stop 
at any castle, or monastery, on the road, where 
they were never refused lodging and entertain- 
ment. 

23. There were no table cloths, and the dishes 
and cups were mostly of wood, but they were 
well filled with meat, game, fish, or poultry, 
which, with bread and ale, constituted the rude, 
but substantial fare. 

24. The Baron, with his friends, sat at an 
upper table, which was served with wine ; and, 
sometimes he would have his hounds lying at his 
feet, and his favorite hawk, upon a perch, beside 
him. 

25. The supper, at five o'clock, was just like 
the dinner, and these were the only regular 
meals at that period. 

26. I said there were no inns in those days, 
which reminds me to speak of the difficulty and 
danger of travelling. The roads were very bad 
and lonely, often running through forests and 
across wide heaths, infested with robbers. 

27. Then there were no public conveyances 
of any kind, nor any way of making a journey, 
but on horseback, or on foot ; and, as to stopping 
at the country towns, there was very little accom- 
modation to be had there, for they were poor 

9* 



102 the child's pictorial 

places, the houses in them being very little bet- 
ter than wooden sheds. 

28. There were no shops, so that every thing 
was bought, as formerly, at the markets and 
fairs. 

29. A great many merchants, from London, 
France, and Flanders, used to bring goods to 
the fairs for sale, and they were obliged to pay 
tolls and duties to the lord of the manor, which 
came to a great deal of money, because they 
brought a quantity of valuable merchandise, as 
the nobles themselves purchased their wearing 
apparel, jewellery, spices, and many other com- 
modities, at the fairs, which sometimes lasted 
fifteen days. 

30. The dress of the great nobility, in the 
fourteenth century, was very handsome, for they 
wore mantles of satin or velvet, with borders 
worked in gold, over jackets highly embroidered; 
and their velvet caps were often adorned with 
jewels. 

31. The middle classes wore close coats of 
cloth, with leather belts round the waist, such 
as the Blue-Coat Boys now wear, and they had 
tight pantaloons, short boots, and cloth caps. 

32. The clothing of the working people was 
made of very coarse wool, sometimes undyed, 
and all spun and woven at home by the women, 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 103 

who had nothing else for their own wearing, as 
there were no cottons or stuffs made in England 
then, nor any of the nice comfortable things that 
the poor people can get so cheap now. 

33. The country towns were at this period 
inhabited chiefly by free artisans, such as black- 
smiths, carpenters, and others, of different 
trades; but there were still a great many vil- 
leins and serfs, on all the cultivated lands, for 
slavery was never abolished in England by any 
act of parliament, but gradually died away with 
the feudal laws. 

34. The armies were not raised then as they 
were at an earlier period, by feudal service, but 
soldiers were hired and paid by the day ; but 
there was no standing army, as there is at pre- 
sent ; for, as soon as the wars were over, the men 
were all discharged, which was a bad thing, as it 
often happened they had no homes or employ- 
ment to return to, and so formed themselves into 
bands of robbers. 

35. However, fighting men had plenty of oc- 
cupation during the reign of Edward the First, 
of whose wars in Scotland I am now about to 
speak. 

36. The King of Scotland died about this 
time, and as he left no son, and his grand- 
daughter and heiress, Margaret, died soon after, 



104 the child's pictorial 

unmarried, there were two princes, who each 
thought he had a right to succeed to the throne ; 
so they agreed to let the king of England decide 
the dispute, which he readily took upon himself 
to do. One prince was named Kobert Bruce, 
the other, John Baliol. 

37. Edward said Baliol ought to be king, and 
he was crowned accordingly; but the English 
monarch soon began to find fault with him, and 
at last went to war, for he made up his mind to 
try to unite England and Scotland into one 
kingdom, and to be the king of both countries 
himself; but he did not succeed, although he de- 
throned Baliol, and was at war with Scotland 
for nearly eleven years. 

38. I dare say you have heard of a renowned 
Scottish chief, called Sir William Wallace. He 
fought bravely for his country in these wars, but 
he was taken prisoner at the battle of Falkirk ; 
and, I am sorry to say, king Edward was so 
cruel and unjust as to have his head cut off. 

39. But this did not put an end to the war, 
for another chief, Robert Bruce, grandson of 
him before-mentioned, took the place of Wal- 
lace, gained several victories, and was crowned 
king. 

40. The two sovereigns then prepared for a 
long war, and Edward was on his way to Scot- 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 105 

land, with his army, when he was taken ill, and 
died in the year 1307, having reigned thirty-four 
years. 

41. His son, Edward the Second, was so 
careless of every thing but his own pleasure, 
that he neglected the affairs of both England 
and Scotland, so that the Scots recovered all 
they had lost ; and when, at last, the king was 
persuaded to renew the war, he met with such 
a terrible defeat at the battle of Bannockburn, 
that the Scots are proud of it to this very day. 

42. There is nothing more worth telling about 
the reign of Edward the Second, whose miscon- 
duct caused many of the barons to rebel, and he 
was, at last, made prisoner by them, and cruelly 
murdered, in Berkeley castle, in 1327, having 
reigned about twenty years. 

43. His son, Edward the Third, was scarcely 
fifteen, at the time of his father's death ; but he 
was a very clever prince, and soon began to 
manage the affairs of the country himself. 

44. He married a Flemish princess, named 
Philippa, who was much beloved by the English 
people, as, indeed, she deserved to be, for she 
was both good and beautiful, as well as one of 
the cleverest ladies of her time, and she em- 
ployed her talents in doing all the good she 
could for England. 



106 the child's pictorial 

45. She knew that the people of her own 
country, which was Flanders, had grown rich 
by their trade and manufactures, so she did all 
in her power to increase the trade of England, 
and paid a number of Flemish weavers to come 
over here and settle at Norwich, that they 
might improve the people there, in the art of 
making woollen cloth and stuffs, for which a ma- 
nufactory had been established by Edward the 
First. 

46. She also founded several schools, and was 
a friend to those who distinguished themselves 
by their learning. 

47. I must not forget to tell you that Chau- 
cer, the first great poet that wrote in English, 
lived at this time, and received much kindness 
from the King and Queen. 

48. The English language was now beginning 
to be spoken by the higher classes, instead of 
French, and was not very unlike the English 
spoken now, as you might see, if you were to 
look at the poems written by Chaucer. 

49. Edward the Third was, unfortunately, as 
fond of war as his grandfather. He renewed 
the war with Scotland, but his great wars were 
in France, for his ambition was to be king of 
that country, and he pretended he had a right to 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 107 

the throne, because his mother was the sister of 
the late king. 

50. But the French thought otherwise, and 
chose another prince for their king, so Edward 
invaded France, where he commenced a long 
and destructive war, which lasted nearly forty 
years, and was carried on, for a great part of 
that time, by his eldest son, who was called the 
Black Prince, because he wore black armour. 

51. He made great conquests in the south of 
France, and, at the celebrated battle of Poic- 
tiers, took the French king prisoner, and brought 
him to England, where he remained a captive 
for the rest of his life, but was treated with so 
much kindness and respect, that he had little to 
complain of but the loss of his liberty. 

52. The Black Prince was not only a brave 
warrior, but was a good and clever man ; there, 
fore, his death, which happened a, few months be- 
fore that of his father, was a great grief to the 
English people. 

53. Edward the Third died in 1377, after 
a long reign of fifty years. He had been a 
pretty good king, had made the people obey the 
laws, and, in general, observed them himself. 

54. When he wanted money for the French 
wars, he had allowed the villeins and serfs, on his 
manors, or crown lands, to buy their freedom, so 



108 THE child's pictorial 

that there were now, comparatively, but few of 
the lower orders remaining in bondage ; and the 
agricultural labourers were paid for their labour, 
as well as the artisans and mechanics. 

55. Their wages were, in general, from two- 
pence to threepence a day, but you must remem- 
ber that twopence, at that time, was equal, in 
purchasing the necessaries of life, to about one 
shilling and eightpence of our money, and would 
buy much more than sufficient food for a whole 
family. 

56. They lived chiefly on meat, brown bread, 
and ale ; for there were no vegetables for the 
table, cultivated by the people in England, till 
the time of Henry the Eighth ; nor any potatoes, 
till that of Queen Elizabeth ; and then they were 
considered a dainty dish, and only seen at the 
tables of very rich people. 

57. However, there were gardens, orchards, 
and vineyards, belonging to the monasteries, and 
to persons of high rank and fortune. 

QUESTIONS. 

1. Who succeeded king John? 

2. What were the consequences of the king's misconduct ? 
7. What great change was made in parliament, and how? 
9. Who first brought a carpet into England ? 

10. How long did Henry the Third reign? and by whom was 
he succeeded? 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 109 

11. What was the character of Edward the First ? 

12. Mention some of his first acts ? 

15. How did he regulate the parliament ? 

18. How was Wales united to England ? 

37. What gave rise to the Scottish wars ? 

38. Who was the great Scottish chief and patriot; and what 

was his fate ? 

39. Who was made king of Scotland 

40. When did Edward die ] and who succeeded him ? 

41. What became of Edward the Second? 

43. Who was the next king ? 

44. Whom did he marry ? 

47. Who was the first great English poet X 
49. Why did Edward the Third invade France ? 

53. When did the death of Edward take place? 

54. How did Edward the Third raise money for the wars ? 



10 



110 



THE CHILD S PICTORIAL 



CHAPTER XL 

FROM THE ACCESSION OF RICHARD THE SECOND TO 
THE WAR OF THE ROSES. — 1392 TO 1429. 




ABDICATION OF RICHARD. 



1. Richard the Second, the son of Edward, 
the Black Prince, was but eleven years old when, 
by the death of his grandfather, he became king 
of England. His uncles governed the country 
till he was old enough to act for himself; but 
they did not teach him to be a wise, nor a just 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Ill 

man, and this injustice was the cause of all his 
misfortunes. 

2. One of the first things he did on his own 
account, was to break a promise he made to the 
people ; and this was how it happened. A new 
tax had caused great discontent among the 
labouring classes, and their unwillingness to pay 
it was increased by the insolence of the collec- 
tors, who, one day, in the house of a man called 
Walter, or Wat Tiler, behaved so ill to his 
daughter, that he gave one of them a blow on 
the head with his hammer, which unluckily killed 
him. 

3. Now the neighbours knew that if Walter 
should be taken, he would be put to death for 
the offence, and as they all had cause to com- 
plain of the tax-gatherers, they assembled in 
front of his cottage, and declared they would 
protect him. 

4. This was at Deptford, and they all pro- 
ceeded to London, being joined by thousands of 
men from different towns, and a dreadful riot 
there was ; so that it was thought necessary for 
the king to take some means of pacifying the 
rebels. 

5. Accordingly he went, with the lord mayor 
and some nobles and gentlemen, to meet them 
in Smithfield, and whilst Tiler, their leader, was 



112 THE CHILD'S PICTORIAL 

talking with the king, the mayor came behind 
him, and struck him on the head with his mace, 
and stunned him, and he was killed by Richard's 
party ; and then the king, fearing the rioters 
would kill him in return, asked them what they 
wanted, saying, he was ready to do any thing 
that was right and just. 

6. They said they desired that the poll tax 
should be taken off; slavery and villeinage 
abolished by law ; so that all who were still in 
bondage should be made free ; and that the old 
feudal custom of paying duties on goods, at all 
the markets and fairs, should be done away 
with. 

7. All this Richard promised to do ; but no 
sooner had the men dispersed and gone back to 
their homes, than he sent out a military force to 
seize all who had been concerned in the rebellion ; 
and I grieve to say that, although he had given 
his word that they should all be pardoned, he 
ordered the judges to have every one of them 
executed. 

8. After such conduct as this, you will not 
expect to hear much good of Richard the Se- 
cond, whose selfish extravagance led him to do 
all kinds of unjust things, for the purpose of 
raising money to spend on his own pleasures; 
so that it might truly be said that he was con- 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 113 

stantly robbing bis subjects ; as, for instance, be 
once wanted to borrow a large sum of the citi- 
zens of London, which they would not lend him, 
because they knew very well he would never 
return it ; so he took away their charter, that is, 
the grant which gives them the right to elect a 
lord mayor, and to manage the affairs of the 
city independently of the king ; and they were 
obliged to give him ten times as much to get it 
back again, as they had refused to lend. 

9. The citizens of London were very rich at 
this period, many of them being great merchants, 
and it was in this reign that the famous Whit- 
tington was Lord Mayor. 

10. He had made a large fortune in the coal 
trade, which was then a new branch of commerce, 
for coals were very little used for firing till the 
time of Edward the Third. 

11. King Richard had unjustly banished his 
cousin Henry, Earl of Hereford, and on the 
death of Henry's father, the Duke of Lancaster, 
had taken possession of his estates. 

12. This nobleman was a grandson of Ed- 
ward the Third, and was much liked by the Eng- 
lish, who would rather have had him for their 
king than the unworthy sovereign they had got, 
although he would have had no right to the 
throne, even if Richard had been dead. 

10* 



114 THE CHILD'S PICTORIAL 

13. However, lie came back to England, and 
finding most of the nobles as well as the people 
willing to make him king, Richard was obliged 
to resign the crown, and was imprisoned in 
Pomfret castle, where it is supposed he died 
by unfair means ; but as this is not quite cer- 
tain, we will hope it was not so. He had 
reigned twenty-two years, when he was deposed, 
in 1399. 

14. This usurpation of Henry the Fourth 
was the cause of the long civil wars in England, 
called the Wars of the Roses, which began in 
the time of Henry the Sixth, whose right to the 
throne was disputed, although his father and 
grandfather had been suffered to reign without 
opposition. 

15. Henry the Fourth was, on the whole, a 
popular monarch, and under his government 
things went on pretty well with the generality 
of the people. 

16. There was an insurrection in Wales, 
headed by a gentleman, named Owen Glen- 
dower, who wished to restore the Welsh to their 
former independence, and to be their prince, 
as he was of the ancient royal family ; and he 
was joined by the powerful Earl pf Northumber- 
land, and his son Henry Percy, better known 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 115 

by the name of Hotspur, who was one of the 
bravest knights of the age. 

17. These noblemen had a quarrel with the 
king, and wanted to depose him ; but he gained 
a victory over them in a battle fought near 
Shrewsbury, where Hotspur was killed. These 
events are not of much importance, but I tell 
them because when you hear any celebrated 
characters spoken of, you ought to know who 
they were, and when they lived. 

18. The prince of Wales, afterwards Henry 
the Fifth, was also celebrated for his valour, 
but not for his good behaviour in his youth ; 
for his conduct was sometimes so disgraceful 
that his father was quite ashamed of him, and 
nobody would have supposed he was the son 
of a king. 

19. One thing he used to do was to go out at 
night, with some idle companions, and rob peo- 
ple on the highway, for amusement ; yet he had 
not a bad disposition, for once one of the judges 
sent him to prison for trying to rescue one of 
his wicked companions ; and he not only sub- 
mitted to the punishment, but when he came to 
be king, he treated that judge with great re- 
spect and attention, because he knew he was a 
just man, and would punish the rich as well 
as the poor, if they did wrong. King Henry 



116 THE CHILD'S PICTORIAL 

the Fourth died in 1413, in the fourteenth year 
of his reign. 

20. Henry the Fifth is famed as the con- 
queror of France. He went to war with that 
country, on the same pretext that Edward the 
Third did before ; and with better success, tor 
the French king was at last glad to make peace 
by agreeing that Henry should be king of France 
after his death. 

21. The greatest victory gained by the En- 
glish, was at the battle of Agincourt. King 
Henry married the French king's daughter, but 
he died soon afterwards, in 1422, having reigned 
nine years ; and leaving an infant son ; and in 
a little while the king of France died too, and 
he also left a son. 

22. Then there was a dispute which of these 
princes should be king of France, and a new 
war was begun which lasted many years, during 
which the English lost all that the armies of 
Henry the Fifth had won. 

23. In the mean time the young king, Henry 
the Sixth, grew up so weak in mind and sickly 
in body, that he was not able to govern the 
country ; therefore, his ministers and the queen, 
a French princess, named Margaret of Anjou, 
had to manage every thing for him. 

24. But many people did not like the queen, 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 117 

and began to say that her husband had no right 
to the throne as his grandfather was a usurper ; 
but that Richard, Duke of York, ought to be 
king of England ; while others said that, as the 
Parliament had consented to let the family of 
the Duke of Lancaster reign, it was lawful for 
them to keep the crown ; and that although king 
Henry was not fit for a ruler, the rights of his 
son, prince Edward, ought to be protected. 

25. The Duke of York was then governor 
of Ireland, but when he heard of these dis- 
putes, he came back, and was placed at the 
head of the government here, instead of the 
queen. 

26. I think you will now quite understand 
why there was a civil war in England. Every 
nobleman in the country took one side or the 
other, and the friends of the Duke of York wore 
a white rose or ribbon rosette ; while those who 
supported the king, or House of Lancaster, wore 
a crimson one; as people now wear different 
colored ribbons at an election, to show which 
party they belong to ; and this is why these wars 
are called the Wars of the Roses. 

QUESTIONS. 

1. Who succeeded Edward the Third? 

2. Who was Wat Tiler, and how was his rebellion occa- 

sioned ? 



118 THE CHILD'S PICTORIAL 

4. How did the rebels proceed ? 

5. What means were taken to quell the insurrection ? 

6. What were the demands of the rebels? 

7. What was the conduct of Richard on this occasion ? 

12. Who was the Earl of Hereford ? 

13. How was Richard dethroned, and what became of him? 

16. What battle was fought in this reign, and why? 

17. Who was killed in this battle? 

18. Who succeeded Henry the Fourth ? 

20. How did Henry the Fifth distinguish himself ? 

23. What was the character of Henry the Sixth ? 

24. What gave rise to the Wars of the Roses ? 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 



119 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE WARS OF THE ROSES. — 1422 TO 1461. 




1. The civil wars may be said to have lasted 
thirty years, from the first battle at St. Alban's, 
in 1455, to the battle of Bosworth, in 1485 ; for 



120 THE child's pictorial 

although there were intervals of peace, the quar 
rel between the house of York and Lancaster 
was not finally settled till the two families were 
united by the marriage of Henry the Seventh, 
who was heir of the House of Lancaster, with 
Elizabeth, the grand-daughter of Richard, Duke 
of York, and heiress of that family. 

2. During that thirty years, the country was, 
as you may suppose, in a very unhappy condi- 
tion. Every Baron wanted to collect as many 
men around him as he could, to defend his castle 
in case of siege; so the countrymen left their 
rural labors and went to enlist in the service of 
this or that nobleman, because they were sure of 
getting plenty to eat and drink. 

3. Thus the castle halls were crowded, but the 
fields were left without sufficient laborers to 
plough and sow them, consequently the crops 
were generally bad, and bread was at times, so 
dear, that many poor families could get none at 
all, but were obliged to eat herbs and berries 
that they found in the woods, which did not 
nourish them, so that numbers died of want. 

4. Many battles were fought in different parts 
of England, and the queen was present at some 
of them, for it was she who conducted the war, 
as the king was incapable of so much exertion, 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 121 

and Margaret could not bear to see her young 
son Edward deprived of his birthright. 

5. Three victories had been gained by the 
Duke of York, when he was killed at the battle 
of Wakefield ; but this event did not put an end 
to the contest, for his son Edward, who succeeded 
to his title, continued the war and, in the end, 
became king of England, while poor king Henry 
was kept a prisoner in the Tower, where he died 
in 1471. 

6. Edward owed his success chiefly to the Earl 
of Warwick, the richest and most powerful 
nobleman in England, and considered as the last 
of the great feudal Barons, for it is said that he 
maintained no less than thirty thousand people 
at his own expense, who were ready to devote 
their lives to his service. 

7. He had a great many castles in different 
parts of England, and a noble mansion in War- 
wick lane, London, which still bears that name, 
although it presents a very different appearance 
from what it did when this mighty Earl lived 
there like a sovereign prince, and the place was 
crowded with his armed retainers. 

8. Edward had been very well received by tho 
citizens of London, and crowned, with their con- 
sent, long before the death of king Henry. 

9. Two battles were fought soon after his 

11 



122 THE child's pictorial 

accession to the throne, one at Towton the other 
at Hexham ; and it was after the latter, that a 
story is told how queen Margaret wandered 
about in a forest with her little boy, till they 
were both half dead with hunger and fatigue, 
when she met with a robber, and instead of try- 
ing to avoid him, told him who she was, and 
begged he would protect her child. 

10. The man took them to a cave, and gave 
them food and shelter, until he found an oppor- 
tunity of getting them on board a vessel that 
was going to Scotland. 

11. People were now in hopes there would be 
peace ; but the new sovereign was so unwise as 
to quarrel with the Earl of Warwick, who be- 
came his enemy, and resolved to deprive him of 
the crown he had helped him to win. 

12. Then the war was begun again, and went 
on for several years longer, till Warwick was 
killed at the battle of Barnet, on Easter Sun- 
day, 1471, just ten years after the battle of 
Towton. 

13. On the day of this battle, Queen Marga- 
ret, and her son, prince Edward, then a youth 
of eighteen, landed in England, for they had 
lived in France some years, and were sadly 
grieved at the news of Warwick's defeat and 
death; but as they had a great many friends, the 



HISTORY OP ENGLAND. 123 

queen determined upon trying another battle, 
which was a great pity, for both herself and her 
son were made prisoners, and the young prince 
was killed in king Edward's tent, for making a 
spirited answer to some insulting question put to 
him by the haughty monarch. 

14. The miserable mother was sent to the 
Tower, where her husband had just died ; but 
she was afterwards released, and ransomed by 
her father ; and she returned to live with him in 
France, her native country. 

15. And now, that we have done with the 
wars, we may begin to think of something more 
pleasant. Have you ever heard it was in the 
reign of Edward the Fourth that books were 
first printed in England ? 

16. The art of printing, which enables us to 
have so many nice books to instruct and amuse 
us, had lately been invented in Germany, and 
was brought here by an English merchant, named 
William Caxton, who went to Cologne, on pur- 
pose to learn how to print, and when he came 
back, he set up a printing-press in Westminster 
Abbey, which, at that time, was a monastery. 

17. We ought to be very much obliged to 
the clever person that invented printing; for 
only think how very ignorant we should be, and 



124 the child's pictorial 

how much pleasure we should lose, if there were 
no books to tell us any thing. 

18. There were books, certainly, before that 
time ; but they were all written, and it took so 
long to copy them, that they were very expen- 
sive, so that none but very rich people could 
have even a few volumes. 

19. Printed books were also, for a long time, 
much too dear to be in general use, but people 
of rank soon began to be much better educated 
than in former times, and their habits and man- 
ners became much improved in consequence. 

20. Then a great many of the old Norman 
castles had been destroyed in the wars, which 
put an end, after a time, to the customs of 
chivalry ; and the nobles, instead of sending 
their sons to be brought up for warlike knights, 
sent them to Oxford, or Cambridge, to become 
scholars ; or to Eton College, which had been 
founded by Henry the Sixth. 

21. King Edward died in 1483, when his eldest 
son, who is called Edward the Fifth, although he 
never was really king, was only thirteen years 
old ; and he, and his younger brother, the Duke 
of York, were under the guardianship of their 
uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who was a 
very bad man. 

22. Instead of protecting the fatherless chil- 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 125 

dren entrusted to his care, he only thought how 
he might take advantage of their youth to obtain 
the crown himself ; so he sent them both to the 
Tower, but not as prisoners, for it was then used 
occasionally as a royal residence, especially in 
times of public disturbances; so Richard told 
the people the boys would be safe there ; but in 
a little while it was reported that they were 
dead, and it was thought he had caused them to 
be murdered, which was most likely the truth, 
although some people think they were not put 
to death, but were kept there as prisoners for 
some years. 

23. Richard the Third was not a very bad 
king, for he made some laws that were very 
useful to the merchants who traded with foreign 
countries, and he was the first who thought of 
having postmen, or couriers, to carry letters, so 
that, wicked as he was, we cannot say he did no 
good as a sovereign. 

24. The post was, at first, only for govern- 
ment letters, and it was a long time before any 
arrangements were made for private persons to 
correspond by the same means ; but this was 
done by degrees, and in the time of Oliver 
Cromwell, the General Post Office was estab- 
lished, when every body had the benefit of this 
excellent institution, which adds so much to peo- 

11* 



126 THE child's pictorial 

pie's happiness ; for who could possibly be happy 
now, if they could not hear from their absent 
friends ? 

25. Richard the Third reigned only two years, 
for he was disliked by the nobility, and a con- 
spiracy was formed against him by the friends 
of the House of Lancaster, who were desirous 
of placing on the throne the heir of that family, 
Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond. 

26. This young nobleman was living in exile, 
at the time, in France. But he was soon in- 
formed of what was going on, and told the 
Trench king, who lent him forty ships, and 
about five thousand soldiers, with which he 
sailed directly for England, where he found 
friends ready to join him with more troops. 

27. The battle of Bosworth was fought on 
the 22nd of August, 1485, when Richard was 
killed, and the conqueror proclaimed king on 
the field ; and thus ended the Wars of the 
Roses. 

QUESTIONS. 

1. What was the duration of the civil wars ? 

2. Describe the general state of the country. 

4. Who conducted the war for the king ? 

5. How did the Duke of York lose his life ? 

6. To whom did Edward owe his success ? 

9. Name the battles that were fought after Edward became 
king? 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 127 

11. Why was the contest renewed ? 

12. Where was the Earl of Warwick killed, and when ? 

13. What happened after this battle ? 

14. When were books first printed in England ? 
16. Where was the art of printing invented ? 

20. Who founded Eton College ? 

21. Who obtained the crown on the death of Edward the 

Fourth] 

22. Relate the circumstances. 

23. What was the origin and progress of the Post Office ? 
25. How was the reign of Richard soon terminated ? 

27. Name the date of the battle of Bosworth. 



128 



THE CHILD S PICTORIAL 



CHAPTER XIII. 

FROM THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH, TO QUEEN 
ELIZABETH. 1461 TO 1558. 




IADY JANE GREY REFUSING THE CROWN. 



1. Henry the Seventh was not an amiable 
man, but he had many qualities that were good 
and useful in a sovereign, and the country pros- 
pered greatly under his government. 

2. One of the conditions on which he suc- 
ceeded to the throne, was that he should marry 
the princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward the 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 129 

Fourth, and thus secure peace by uniting the 
families of York and Lancaster : — the princess 
Elizabeth was a lady much beloved by every 
body, and her many acts of benevolence were 
long remembered in England, so that she was 
generally called the good queen Bess. 

3. The king wished to increase the wealth 
and prosperity of the nation, and he took the 
best means of doing so by promoting commerce. 
He made commercial treaties, that is, agree- 
ments about trade, with foreign princes, by 
which he obtained many advantages for the 
English merchants, just as our government has 
lately made a treaty with the emperor of China, 
about our trade in his country. 

4. No English ship had ever been to China 
then, nor even to India ; and America had not 
yet been discovered ; but in the time of Henry 
the Seventh, the Spaniards and Portuguese 
made longer voyages than had ever been made 
before, and the celebrated Christopher Colum- 
bus, whom I dare say you have often heard of, 
found out by study, that there was an unknown 
land on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, 
and although people laughed at him, he at last 
persuaded the king and queen of Spain to let 
him have ships, and sailors, and money, to go in 
search of it, so he was the first that found out 



130 the child's pictorial 

the way to America, which, for a long time, was 
called the New World. 

5. Soon after this, the Portuguese found out 
the way to India by sea ; and then the English 
began to make voyages of discovery also, and 
to find that the world had more countries in it 
than they had ever dreamed of before. 

6. Maps and charts, which had been known 
to the Greeks and Romans, now began to be 
much improved, though they were still incor- 
rect, as you may suppose. 

7. However, all these new discoveries, toge- 
ther with the invention of printing, made peo- 
ple think more about learning, and less about 
fighting, than they used to do ; especially as the 
nobility were beginning to live more in the way 
they do now, and to have handsome houses in 
London, instead of living always in their gloomy 
old castles. 

8. Their domestics were no longer slaves, but 
hired servants ; their tenants were not villeins, 
but free farmers, who paid rent for their land ; 
and the poor pesantry, no longer in bondage, 
were at liberty to go where they pleased, and 
were paid for their daily labour. 

9. You remember that in the feudal times all 
the land in the country belonged to the king, 



HISTORY OP ENGLAND. 131 

the nobles, the knights, and the bishops, and 
abbots. 

10. But Edward tho First made a law in 
favour of the sale and purchase of all lands ex- 
cept those held immediately of the king ; and 
Edward the Third gave his own vassals leave 
to sell their estates. 

11. Other laws were afterwards made, by 
which landed property was made liable to sei- 
zure for debt, and might be given by will, or 
sold at the pleasure of the owner. And Henry 
the Seventh, by another law, further encouraged 
the sale of land, and the consequent division of 
large estates. 

12. Then many of the nobles, who had more 
land than they wanted, sold some of it to 
wealthy merchants and others, who built large 
mansions, to which they often gave their own 
family name, as for instance, if the name of the 
proprietor happened to be Burton, he would 
probably call his residence Burton Hall. 

13. These country gentlemen formed quite a 
new class of people in England, and they have 
ever since that time continued to increase in 
wealth, rank, and importance. 

14. A strange thing happened in the reign 
of Henry the Seventh, which has made some 
people think the sons of Edward the Fourth 



132 THE child's pictorial 

were not put to death in the Tower, as is gene- 
rally believed, but you shall hear the story. 

15. A young man, called Perkin Warbeck, 
came to Ireland from Flanders, and declared 
he was the younger of those two princes, and 
the lawful heir to the throne, as his brother was 
dead. 

16. He told a wonderful tale, how he had 
escaped from the Tower, and related many ad- 
ventures which he said had befallen him ; so the 
Irish people said they would fight for him, and 
try to take the crown from king Henry ; but as 
they could not raise a sufficient force by them- 
selves, Warbeck applied to the king of France, 
who also promised to help him, and then he 
went to the Duchess of Burgundy, who was 
Edward the Fourth's sister, and, strange to say, 
that lady declared she believed the young man 
was her brother's son, and persuaded the Flem- 
ings to lend him their aid. 

17. But the king of France changed his mind ; 
and made a treaty of peace with king Henry, 
who ordered the English merchants not to carry 
on any trade with Flanders while the Flemings 
continued to favour the cause of Perkin War- 
beck, so they deserted him too. 

18. I have not the room to tell you the rest 
of his adventures, but they ended in his being 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 133 

taken prisoner by the king, who had him put to 
death as a traitor. Henry the Seventh reigned 
twenty-four years, and was succeeded in 1509 
by his son, Henry the Eighth. 

19. The young king was married to Catha- 
rine of Arragon, the daughter of the king of 
Spain, a beautiful and talented woman, who 
deserved a better husband, for Henry was a 
sad tyrant in his family, as well as over the 
nation. 

20. The greatest man in the kingdom next to 
the king, was his minister, Cardinal Wolsey, 
who governed the country for many years, and 
was so rich, that he not only lived in as much 
splendour as the king, but he built the palaces 
of Hampton-court and Whitehall, and founded 
the College of Christ Church at Oxford. 

21. A Cardinal is a priest of high dignity in 
the Catholic Church, being next in rank to the 
Pope. 

22. Wolsey was clever and learned ; but he 
was very proud, so he had many enemies, and 
at last fell into disgrace with the king, and died 
of grief. 

23. Soon after this Henry chose to be separ- 
ated from his good wife, Catharine, because he 
had seen a young lady named Anna Boleyn, 
whom he thought he should like to marry ; so 

12 



134 THE child's pictorial 

he sent the queen and his daughter Mary, away 
from court, and made Anna Boleyn queen ; but 
he soon began to dislike her, and said she had 
done some very wicked things, as an excuse for 
sending her to the Tower, where he had her 
head cut off; and then he married another young 
lady, named Jane Seymour, who soon died. 
She left a little baby, who was king Edward the 
Sixth ; and Anna Boleyn also had a baby, who 
was queen Elizabeth. 

24. I must now tell you of a great change 
made by Henry the Eighth, with regard to reli- 
gion, and called the Reformation. 

25. The church of England had, till this pe- 
riod, been the same as that of Rome, and the 
people were Roman Catholics ; but there were a 
good many people in Germany, and in England 
also, who thought that some of the forms of the 
Catholic religion were not right, and ought to 
be altered, and these persons were called re- 
formers, and all who adopted their opinions took 
the name of Protestants, because they protested 
against certain things. 

26. Now Henry the Eighth had a disagree- 
ment with the Pope, about his second mar- 
riage ; so he determined to abolish the Catholic 
religion, to seize on and destroy the monas- 
teries and nunneries, and to have Protestant 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 135 

clergymen to preach and read the prayers in 
the churches. 

27. It would be too long a story to tell you 
how he accomplished all this ; but it was done. 
There were nearly a thousand religious houses, 
that is, convents, abbeys, and priories, in Eng- 
land, inhabited by monks and nuns, clerks and 
friars, of different orders, who had no other 
homes, nor any means of living, but on the 
property of the establishments to which they 
belonged ; and these were all suppressed, toge- 
ther with many colleges and hospitals, which 
also supported a great many poor people. 

28. The poor were very sorry the convents 
were broken up, for they had been accustomed 
to go there when they were in distress, for food, 
clothing, or medicine ; and now they did not 
know where to get relief, as there were no 
workhouses; the hospitals, and all other cha- 
ritable institutions, except some alms-houses, 
having been destroyed ; nor was it till almost 
the middle of the reign of queen Elizabeth that 
any provision was made by law for the destitute 
poor. 

29. The manufactures of England were now 
fast increasing. Manchester, Birmingham, and 
Sheffield, were beginning to be known as manu- 



136 THE child's pictorial 

facturing towns ; the first, for woollens and 
cottons ; the others, for cutlery and hardware. 

30. Pewter plates and dishes were made in 
large quantities, for they were now used in 
the most respectable families instead of wood ; 
hats were also made in England in this reign ; 
and a clock, the first ever manufactured in this 
country. 

31. But nothing was more useful than the 
improvements made in gardening, for which we 
are indebted to the Flemings and Dutch, who 
were the best gardeners in Europe, and who 
brought here many kinds of vegetables for the 
table, such as cabbages, lettuces, &c, and many 
fruits that had not been cultivated in England 
since the time of the Romans, particularly cher- 
ries and currants. 

32. Potatoes were not known until the reign 
of queen Elizabeth, when Sir Walter Raleigh 
brought some from America, and planted them, 
first in Ireland, little thinking, perhaps, that this 
root would, at a future time, be almost the only 
food of the Irish people. 

33. Henry the Eighth had three more wives, 
Anne of Cleves, whom he divorced ; Catherine 
Howard, whom he had beheaded, like poor Anna 
Boleyn ; and Catherine Parr, who outlived him. 

34. He reigned thirty-eight years, and was 



HTSTORY OF ENGLAND. 137 

succeeded by his son, Edward the Sixth, who 
was only nine years old, and died before he was 
sixteen ; so that he can scarcely be reckoned 
among the kings of England. 

35. He was a pious and amiable prince, fond 
of learning, and extremely charitable. He 
founded St. Thomas's Hospital, for the sick 
poor ; and Christ's Hospital and School, for 
the education of boys who had lost their fathers. 

36. He had a cousin, Lady Jane Grey, w r hom 
he was very fond of, for she w r as about his own 
age, gentle and beautiful, and being fond, of 
study, was educated w r ith him ; so that it was no 
wonder he liked her. 

37. They were both Protestants ; but Ed- 
ward's eldest sister, Mary, was a Catholic ; and 
as some of the great noblemen were Protestants, 
they did not like to have a Catholic queen ; so 
when the young king w r as dying, they persuaded 
him to make a will, leaving the crown to Lady 
Jane Grey, which was not right, because his 
father had ordered, and the parliament con- 
firmed his will, that, if he died, Mary was to be 
queen. Edward the Sixth died in the seventh 
year of his reign. 

38. Lady Jane was married to young Lord 
Guildford Dudley, and knew nothing about 
king Edward's will till after he was dead, when 

12* 



138 the child's pictorial 

her husband's father told her she was to be 
queen. 

39. At first she refused, but was, at length, 
persuaded or compelled to allow herself to be 
proclaimed ; and very unhappy it made her, so 
that she was very glad, at the end of ten days, 
to give up the title of queen to her who had a 
better right to it. 

40. Now Mary was a woman of a morose 
temper ; and, unfortunately, at that time, and 
long afterwards, people who differed in religious 
opinions were very cruel to each other ; so she 
would not forgive poor Lady Jane Grey, but 
sent her and her husband to the Tower, where 
they were both beheaded. 

41. The reign of queen Mary lasted only five 
years, and there is little to tell about it, except 
that she did all she could to restore the Roman 
Catholic religion, and re-established s<*me of the 
monasteries ; but they were suppressed again, 
after her death, by her sister Elizabeth, who 
had been brought up in the Protestant faith. 

QUESTIONS. 

2. How did Henry the Seventh secure peace ? 

3. How was the prosperity of the country inci*eased ? 

4. What great discoveries were made in his reign ? 

7. What changes may be noticed in the mode of living ? 

8. How was a new class of people formed ? 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 139 

15. Who was Perkin Warbeck ? 

18. Who succeeded Henry the Seventh ? 

19. To whom was he married ? 

20. Who was Cardinal Wolsey ? 

23. Why did the king put away his first queen? 

25. What was the Reformation ? 

26. How was this change accomplished ? 

29. Which towns had become famous for their manu- 
facture ? 

33. How many wives had Henry the Eighth ? 

34. How long did he reign, and who succeeded him ? 

36. Who was Lady Jane Grey ? 

37. What is chiefly remarkable of Queen Mary ? 
41. By whom was she succeeded ? 



140 



THE CHILD S PICTORIAL 



CHAPTER XIV. 

QUEEN ELIZABETH.— 1558 TO 1603. 




QUEEN ELIZABETH REVIEWING HER TROOPS. 

1. Elizabeth is one of the most celebrated 
of our sovereigns, for she was a remarkably 
clever woman, although, like her father, she was 
harsh and tyrannical. 

2. It was a merry day in England when she 
was crowned, for great numbers of the people 
had not liked queen Mary. The citizens of 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 141 

London testified their joy by decorating the out. 
sides of their houses with draperies of silk and 
satin ; and by having shows and pageants in the 
streets, as was customary, at that time, on all 
joyful occasions. 

3. In one place, a fountain ran with wine ; 
in another, a boy, dressed to represent an 
angel with wings, descended from the top of 
an arch, as the queen's chariot was passing 
under, and presented her with a bible ; then 
w T as drawn up again by a cord, to look as if 
he flew away ; and there were many other 
things of the same kind, which I have not room 
to tell of. 

4. The ladies and gentlemen who attended the 
queeen rode on horseback, for coaches were not 
used in England till some years afterwards, 
when a gentleman, from Holland, brought a 
carriage over here, and then the English soon 
began to build coaches, and ladies of rank left 
off riding on horses, as they used to do, seated 
on a pillion, behind their husbands. 

5. Elizabeth was a good queen in many re- 
spects, for she was a friend to learning, com- 
merce, and all useful arts ; and she chose able 
ministers, who ruled the country with wisdom 
and prudence ; but she behaved very cruelly 
about religion, for although numbers of the peo 



142 THE child's pictorial 

pie were still Catholics, she made a law that 
every body should go tc Protestant churches ; 
and those who did not were put in prison, or 
made to pay such large sums of money, that 
they were quite ruined. 

6. In other countries, particularly the Ne- 
therlands, the Protestants were as ill-treated as 
the Catholics were here, so that a great many 
of them came to England, and were very useful 
in teaching the English several arts and manu- 
factures they did not know before. 

7. Pins, needles, and paper, were now first 
made in England, and the cotton and other fac- 
tories were greatly improved, so that there was 
more employment for the working classes. 

8. Then workhouses were established for the 
destitute, and all householders, for the first time, 
were obliged to pay a tax, called the poor rate, 
to support and find the poor in food and clothes, 
so that they might not be driven, by want, to 
beg or steal. 

9. The middle classes became more wealthy, 
and lived in better style than at any former pe- 
riod, especially the citizens of London, many of 
whom were rich merchants, living like noblemen, 
and among these was Sir Thomas Gresham, who 
built the first Royal Exchange, at his own ex- 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 143 

pense, and gave a grand dinner there to the 
queen, in the year 1570. 

10. English merchants now began to think of 
trading to the East Indies : but as it required a 
great deal of money to fit out ships, to make so 
long a voyage, for it took about four times as 
long then as it does now, a number of rich mer- 
chants joined together, and for a sum of money, 
obtained a charter from the queen, which made 
it unlawful for any other persons to carry on 
any trade with that part of the world. 

11. It is very interesting to read how this 
East India Company first were only permitted 
just to land in India, and buy and sell a few 
goods ; then, how they obtained permission of 
the emperor, for there was an emperor of India 
then, to build some warehouses on the sea coast, 
and form a little settlement, called a factory; 
then how they gradually established more facto- 
ries, and took soldiers to protect them, and 
gained possession of lands, where they built 
towns, so that many English families went to 
live there. 

12. Such was the beginning of the British 
empire in India; and, I dare say, that if the 
emperor could have foreseen the consequences, 
he would not have consented to have an English 
factory built on his coast. 



144 THE child's pictorial 

13. In the reign of Elizabeth, Captain Francis 
Drake made a voyage all round the world, 
though he was not the first navigator who did 
so, but he was the first English one. 

14. This was a grand exploit, as few people 
had believed, then, that it was possible, or that 
the world was really a round body ; so you see 
how these voyages tended to increase knowledge, 
as well as to improve commerce. 

15. When Drake returned, the queen went to 
dine with him on board his ship, and made him 
a knight, after which he was called Sir Francis 
Drake, and he soon became an admiral. 

16. In the mean time, several voyages had 
been made to America, and Sir Walter Raleigh, 
who was one of the great men of the time, had 
taken possession of a tract of land for the queen 
of England, which he called Virginia, and it 
still bears that name. 

17. The Europeans behaved very unjustly 
about America, for although the natives were 
savages, they had no right to take away their 
lands. 

18. But they did so in every place they went 
to ; and if they were Spaniards, they set up the 
Spanish flag, and the commander of the ship 
said, " I take this country for the king of Spain ;" 
and then would fight with the poor natives, and 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 145 

kill them or drive them away ; and, I am sorry 
to say, the English used to act much in the same 
manner. 

19. The Spaniards who had taken some of 
the West India Islands, and settled colonies in 
South America, wanted slaves to work in the 
gold mines, and their sugar plantations ; so an 
English captain took out some ships to Africa, 
and carried off a great many negroes, whom he 
sold in the West Indies, for a large price ; and 
from that time this trade was carried on to a 
great extent, and was permitted, by government, 
until the beginning of the present century. 

20. But we must now think of what was 
going on in England. Elizabeth had a cousin, 
named Mary, who was queen of Scotland, and 
was next heir to the English crown. 

21. She was young and beautiful, and had 
been married to the king of France, who was 
now dead ; so she had returned to Scotland, and, 
after a time, married lord Darnley, and had a 
son, who was our king James the First. 

22. Lord Darnley was murdered, and Mary 
married another lord, who was disliked by the 
Scots, so that there was a civil war, and she was 
obliged to resign the crown, and after much ill- 
treatment, escaped to England, and begged the 
protection of queen Elizabeth. 

13 



146 THE child's pictorial 

23. Now the queen had always been jealous 
of her, and she was now cruel enough to shut 
her up in a castle, and, after keeping her a 
prisoner for eighteen years, in different places, 
gave orders for her execution, and the unfortu- 
nate queen of Scots was beheaded in Fother- 
ingay castle. 

24. Soon after this event, news arrived that a 
large fleet was coming to invade England. The 
king of Spain, Philip the Second, had been 
married to our queen Mary ; and had offered his 
hand to queen Elizabeth, but she had resolved 
not to marry at all, and at any rate, she would 
not have had Philip, for she did not like him. 

25. He was, therefore, offended ; and was also 
angry because the queen had been kind to the 
Protestants who had fled to England from the 
Netherlands, for he was king of those countries 
as well as of Spain ; and her admirals having 
attacked some of his settlements in America, he 
determined to invade England, and make him- 
self king there too, if he could. 

26. He got ready the largest fleet that was 
ever known, and called it the Invincible Ar- 
mada ; but it did not prove to be invincible, 
although the English had but a very small navy 
at that time, not more than fifteen ships of war ; 
but the merchants lent their ships, and manned 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND 147 

them at their own expense; and people of all 
classes gave money to pay soldiers, to defend the 
country, in case the Spaniards should effect a 
landing. 

27. But they never did land ; for the English 
vessels, though so much smaller than Spanish 
ships, were lighter, and more manageable, and 
kept them from coming near the shore ; and when 
they anchored off Calais, the English admiral 
sent fire ships among them, and burnt some of 
them, which created such terror, that they sailed 
away as fast as they could, some one way and 
some another, and the English ships chased 
them and disabled a great many ; while others 
were wrecked by a violent storm ; and thus the 
Armada was nearly destroyed. 

28. Small handbills were printed and sent 
about the country, to let the people know that 
the*rlanger was over. 

29. Many more books were now published, 
and there were many clever authors in this reign, 
especially Shakespeare, who wrote a number of 
beautiful plays. 

30. The queen was a great admirer of Shakes- 
peare's plays, and used to go to see them acted; 
but the theatres were then not much better than 
the shows at a country fair, and the performance 
was in the day time. 



148 THE child's pictorial 

31. People of fashion, in those days, dined at 
eleven o'clock ; the merchants and tradespeople, 
at twelve ; and laborers, at one ; and all public 
amusements were between dinner and supper, 
which was taken about six. 

32. These amusements did not show very good 
taste, for gentlemen and ladies of rank used to 
go and see cock fighting, and bull and bear bait- 
ing, which are cruel disgusting exhibitions, and 
I only mention them to show you the difference 
between the manners at that time and this. 

33. I will now give you an idea what kind of 
dress people used to wear in the time of queen 
Elizabeth. The gowns were open before, with a 
stiff bodice, just like a pair of stays, laced in 
front, and a large ruff round the neck. 

34. In the street, most ladies used to wear a 
little black velvet mask, and shoes with such 
high heels they could scarcely walk in them. 
Gentlemen wore short jackets, reaching a little 
below the waist, with a belt and sword, a cloak, 
and a high-crowned hat. 

35. One great improvement was made in dress 
in this reign, by the invention of stockings, 
which, for a long time, were all knitted ; but they 
were found much more convenient than the cloth 
hose, that every body used to wear, till then. 

36. Queen Elizabeth died, after a long, pros- 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 149 

perous and peaceful reign, of forty-five years, in 
1603, having named for her successor, her 
cousin, James Stuart, king of Scotland: and 
thus the two kingdoms of England and Scotland 
came to be united, and took the name of Great 
Britain. 



QUESTIONS. 

1. "What was the character of queen Elizabeth ? 

4. What was the fashion of riding at this period ? 

5. Mention the good and bad features of Elizabeth's gov- 

ernment. 

6. How were new manufactures brought into England, and 

what were they ? 

8. What provision was made for the poor ? 

9. W r hen was the Royal Exchange built, and by whom ? 
10. What was the origin of the East India Company ? 

13. Who was the first English captain that sailed round the 

world ? 
15. What honors were bestowed on him on his return? 
19. How was the slave trade begun ? 
26. What was the Spanish Armada ? 
29. What celebrated author lived in this reign ? 
86. When did Elizabeth die ? 



13= 



150 



THE CHILD S PICTORIAL 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE STUARTS. FROM THE UNION TO THE 
REVOLUTION.— 1603 TO 1689. 




CROMWELL EXPELLING THE MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT. 



1. The people of Scotland did not like the 
union of the two kingdoms, at first, because the 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 151 

king and many of the nobility went away to 
live in London, which, as there was little trade, 
left Scotland in a very poor condition ; and it 
was a long time, indeed, not before the people 
had experienced the great benefits of British 
trade and commerce, that they began to feel as 
a part of the English nation ; but now that the 
English and Scots have become like one people, 
it is certainly much happier and better for both. 

2. James had not been king two years, when 
a conspiracy was formed against the government, 
called the Gunpowder Plot. I cannot tell you 
for certain by whom it was contrived, but it was 
a wicked scheme to blow up the houses of par- 
liament, when the king, and most of the lords 
and commons were there assembled ; but, hap- 
pily, it was discovered a short time before the 
meeting of parliament, and all the greatest men 
in the country were saved from a dreadful death. 

3. James the First was not a good king, foi* 
he had a mistaken notion that a king ought to 
do whatever he liked ; and that, if he wanted 
money he had a right to make new taxes, without 
the consent of parliament, and, in fact, he 
thought it unnecessary to have any parliament 
at all, and he taught his son Charles to be of 
the same opinion, which was the cause of that 



152 THE child's pictorial 

monarch's untimely fate, and the civil wars that 
you will presently read about. 

4. In the reign of James the First, there 
were such severe laws against those who did not 
conform to the church of England, that hun- 
dreds of people emigrated to America, and 'set- 
tled themselves in colonies in a wild country, 
where at first they suffered many hardships and 
privations ; but these colonies, and others, after- 
wards formed, gradually improved, till they be- 
came large flourishing states, now called the 
United States of America. 

5. James the First reigned twenty-two years, 
and was succeeded, in the year 1625, by his son 
Charles, whose bad education led to all the mis- 
eries of a long civil war, and to misfortunes that 
fell upon his own head. 

6. The quarrels between Charles and the par- 
liament, arose from his taking upon himself the 
power of raising money by taxes, without the 
consent of the House of Commons ; and in other 
things he chose to act by his own will, although 
it might be quite contrary to the laws of the 
country. 

7. Many people were put in prison because 
they would not lend him money when he desired 
it ; and, at last, he dissolved the parliament alto- 
gether, and said he would govern without one, 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 153 

and then the people had no protection from his 
tyranny. 

8. Those who were treated the worst were the 
Puritans, a religious sect, whose form of worship 
was very similar to that of the present Scottish 
Church, which is different from the English, as 
they have no bishops, do not use prayer books, 
and have particular rules about choosing their 
own clergymen. 

9. The Scots who hold these opinions are 
called Presbyterians. The Puritans dressed 
very plainly, like quakers, and had their hair 
cut close, and on that account they obtained the 
name of Roundheads ; and those who took part 
against the king in the civil war, generally 
adopted that fashion, and were distinguished by 
that name. 

10. After a time, the king began to find that, 
if he continued to govern by himself, there 
would certainly be a serious rebellion ; so he con- 
sented to have a new parliament, and there was 
an election directly, and as many of the new 
members were Puritans, they perhaps wanted 
the king to yield too much, and thus provoked 
him not to give up so much as he ought. 

11. I cannot tell how this might be; but a 
great many people at length began to think it 
would be better to have a Republic, that is, a 



154 the child's pictorial 

government without a king, and many of the 
Puritans were of that opinion. 

12. Charles had undoubtedly brought all his 
troubles upon himself, but it was now evident he 
must either give up his authority as a sovereign, 
or fight to maintain it ; so he chose the latter 
alternative, and a war was commenced between 
the king and the parliament. Each party raised 
a large army. 

13. The queen, who was sister to the French 
king, went to France, to raise money to pay 
soldiers to fight for her husband, and to bring 
arms for them. He was supported by most of 
the English nobility, while the principal com- 
moners sided with the parliament. 

14. The first general for the parliament was 
the Earl of Essex, who resigned in favor of gen- 
eral Fairfax, but the greatest general of the 
parliamentary army was a country gentleman 
named Oliver Cromwell, who was very clever, 
both as a military officer and a statesman ; and, 
after the death of Charles, he became the ruler 
of England. 

15. The war caused a great deal of unhappi- 
ness in private families ; for, although it was 
principally the soldiers who fought, every body 
was interested in the question whether there 
should be a king, or not ; and such violent quar- 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 155 

rels arose, that the nearest relatives, even fathers 
and sons, and brothers often became enemies, 
and many young men went to join one army, or 
the other ; so that sometimes two brothers might 
be on different sides ; and then think how dread- 
ful it was, when a battle took place, that they 
should be fighting against each other. 

16. The Royalists, who were called Cavaliers, 
were known from the Roundheads by their hand- 
some style of dress, for they wore colored doub- 
lets made of silk or satin, with lace collars falling 
over them, and a short cloak over one shoulder. 
Their hair was curled in long ringlets, and their 
broad hats adorned with long feathers. 

17. There was as much difference in dress 
between the ladies as the gentlemen, for the 
female roundheads were very plain and prim in 
their attire, while the Royalists were dressed in 
the gayest fashion. 

18. I shall not enter into the particulars of 
the war. It is enough to say that after it had 
gone on three years, the king was totally de- 
feated, at the battle of Naseby, in Northampton- 
shire, and soon afterwards was made prisoner. 

19. The Republicans then had it all their own 
way. The king was brought to trial on a charge 
of having broken the laws of the country ; was 



156 the child's pictorial 

condemned to death, and beheaded at Whitehall, 
January 30th, 1649. 

20. But the civil war did not end with the 
death of Charles the First, for his son, prince 
Charles, who was in Holland at the time, went 
to Scotland, where the generality of the people 
were not disposed to have a republican govern- 
ment, so they made the prince promise not to 
interfere with their religion, but to join the 
Presbyterians, and then they proclaimed him 
king, and soon raising an army, he marched into 
England. 

21. A battle was fought at Worcester, where 
Cromwell gained a great victory, and the young 
king had to make his escape, in disguise, with a 
few friends, who were anxious to get him safely 
out of the country ; and many curious adven- 
tures they met with, for parties of the republi- 
can soldiers were sent off in all directions in 
pursuit of the fugitive prince, who was several 
times very nearly caught. 

22. His escape was chiefly owing to the fidelity 
of five brothers, named Penderel, farmers and 
woodmen, who were tenants of a gentleman that 
was warmly attached to the Koyal family. 
They lent him a woodman's dress, called him 
Will Jones ; and rode about with him, to show 






HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 157 

him what houses he might safely go to for shel- 
ter and entertainment. 

23. On the third day after the battle, he was 
obliged to hide in a wood, in Boscobel, on the 
borders of Staifordshire, where he met with a 
friend, Major Carlis, who was hiding himself. 

24. They heard soldiers about the wood, so 
they both got up into an old oak tree, with some 
bread and cheese and beer, that one of the Pen- 
derels had brought to Charles, and while they 
were there, they heard the soldiers talking close 
under the tree, and saying how glad they should 
be to find the king, and that they were sure he 
must be somewhere thereabouts. 

25. The tree was afterwards called the Royal 
Oak; and there is a tree now on the same spot, 
raised from an acorn of the original one, which 
is still distinguished by that name. 

26. One time he travelled with a lady, as her 
groom, and when they stopped at an inn, he 
went into the kitchen, where the cook told him 
to wind up the jack, which he did so awkwardly, 
that she scolded him. 

27. He made an excuse, saying that where he 
came from, they did not have roast meat very 
often, and never used a jack ; but I dare say, 
he laughed heartily afterwards, for he was 
always merry in the midst of his troubles. 

14 



158 THE child's pictorial 

28. At last, after b"eing at hide and seek for 
nearly two months, he embarked at Shoreham, 
and reached the continent in safety. 

29. Great Britain was now not a kingdom, 
for there was no king, but it was a Republic, or 
Commonwealth, which is a government managed 
by the people, or their representatives in parlia- 
ment. 

30. But Oliver Cromwell was an ambitious 
man, and wanted to have all the power in his 
own hands ; so he got the soldiers on his side, 
and then told the members of parliament that it 
was time for them to go out of office, that there 
might be a new election ; and on their refusal, he 
went to the House of Commons with a regiment 
of soldiers, turned out the members, locked the 
doors, and took away the keys. 

31. He soon formed a new Parliament of men 
who were devoted to his interest, and he was 
made chief ruler of the state, under the name 
of Protector of the Commonwealth; but he 
might as well have been called king, for he was 
almost as absolute a sovereign as any that had 
yet reigned. 

32. However, he made a good use of his power 
by promoting trade, and foreign commerce, be- 
sides which, he had an excellent army, and a 
good navy, so that England was considered of 



HISTORY OP ENGLAND. 159 

more importance, brother nations, than it had 
ever been before. 

33. The English Admiral, Blake, gained some 
great victories over the Dutch at sea ; and some 
conquests were made both in the East and West 
Indies, particularly that of Jamaica, which was 
taken from the Spaniards. 

34. The English people obeyed Cromwell more 
from fear than love, yet he had so many great 
qualities that he was respected, as well as feared. 
Milton, the poet, was one of his secretaries, and 
was much attached to him, as I believe most 
people were, who belonged to his domestic circle, 
for Cromwell was kind and mild in his family, 
although severe and determined in his public 
character. 

35. There was not much merriment in Eng- 
land, while he was its ruler, for the Puritans 
thought it sinful to dance, or feast, or sing, or 
play at any games ; so all the theatres and other 
places of public amusement were ordered to be 
shut up, even at Christmas, which had previously 
been a very gay time, when every body, rich or 
poor, used to make holiday for twelve days ; and 
in every country mansion, there was a good 
Christmas dinner, and plenty of fun afterwards, 
old and young playing at forfeits, blindman's 



160 THE child's pictorial 

buff, and other Christmas gambols, in the great 
hall. 

36. But these frolics were forbidden in Crom- 
well's time, and if any merry-hearted folks in- 
dulged in such doings, it was by stealth, and 
they kept it secret. 

87. The prim dress, and hats with high 
crowns, were worn by both sexes ; for if any 
persons had dressed in a gayer fashion, they 
would have been taken for Royalists. Cromwell 
died six years after he was made Protector, and 
ten from the death of Charles the First. 

38. A great many improvements were made 
during the Commonwealth; for instance, coffee, 
sugar, and India muslins, were first brought to 
this country. 

39. When Oliver Cromwell was dead, his son 
Richard was made Protector ; but he liked a 
quiet life, and soon gave up the troublesome 
task of ruling the country ; and as most people 
were now of opinion it was better to have a 
king than not, the parliament resolved to recall 
Charles, who was residing in Holland, and mes- 
sengers were sent to tell him that he would be 
restored to the throne, on condition that all per- 
sons should have liberty to follow their religious 
belief, and that no one should be punished for 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 161 

having taken part against him, or his father, 
before. x . 

40. He returned to England, and entered 
London in great state, on the 29th of May, 
1660, on which day, every year, you may always 
hear the bells ringing, to commemorate the res- 
toration of Charles the Second. 

41. But the rejoicing is because the old form 
of government was restored; for Charles was 
not, by any means, a good sovereign, nor had 
he one quality to be admired, except that he was 
good natured to those about him, and liked to 
make fun of every thing. However, I must not 
forget to say that he rewarded the Penderels, 
who had been so kind to him in his misfortunes. 

42. England was now quite a different place 
from what it had been. Every body might be 
as merry as they chose ; the theatres were re- 
opened ; holidays kept ; the villagers danced 
round their may-poles as they used to do, and 
were not afraid to laugh and sing; while the 
towns-people had their pleasant social meetings, 
and the London citizens their grand feasts, and 
fine shows, as in the days of Elizabeth. 

43. During the Commonwealth, there were no 
bishops, nor any music allowed in the churches ; 
but now, the bishops were restored to their for- 

14* 



162 THE child's pictorial 

mer dignity, and beautiful church music was 
again heard. 

43. But, I am sorry to say, the king did not 
keep his promise to let all persons enjoy their 
own religion, which caused a great deal of un- 
happiness, for numbers of families, to escape 
being put in prison, or having their property 
taken from them, left their comfortable homes, 
and went to settle in the new American colonies, 
where they had to endure many hardships, for 
it is a long time before the people' in new settle- 
ments can obtain the means of living in any 
degree of comfort. 

44. About five years after the return of king 
Charles, the plague broke out in London, and 
continued to rage for many months with fearful 
violence. 

45. The streets were, at that time, narrow 
and dirty ; the houses mostly of wood, and not 
airy ; nor was the city so well paved or cleansed, 
nor so well supplied with water, as at present, 
consequently it was not so healthy; and then, 
the doctors were not so clever as they are now, 
so that many died, who perhaps might have been 
saved. 

46. It was a melancholy time. The houses 
were all shut up ; no business was transacted, 
and scarcely any body was to be seen in the 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 163 

streets, which were sad and silent, for death was 
in almost every house. 

47. The king and queen, and most of the 
great people, went out of town, but some of the 
clergymen and other benevolent persons, stayed 
to do what good they could, and some of them 
caught the infection, and died. 

48. At last, when the heat of the summer was 
over, the plague began to abate, and those who 
had survived it, returned to their usual occupa- 
tions ; but with sorrowful hearts, for most of 
them had to mourn the loss of their dearest 
friends. 

49. The plague had often raged in London 
before, but had never been so bad ; and perhaps 
the great fire that followed it, tended greatly to 
remove the cause of this dreadful distemper. 

50. The memorable fire of London happened 
September, 1666. It began at a baker's shop, 
near London-bridge, and spread rapidly from 
street to street, till almost all the town was in 
flames. 

51. It continued to burn for three days, and 
destroyed nearly the whole city, with most of 
the churches and public buildings ; but there 
were very few lives lost, as the people fled from 
their houses when they saw the fire approaching 
the street in which they lived. 



164 the child's pictorial 

52. Many, however, were ruined by the loss 
of their property, and all were left houseless, so 
that they had to set up tents in the fields, to 
shelter themselves till they could find some place 
to go to ; and subscriptions were made for the 
relief of those who were most in need, for gen- 
erally the respectable citizens had saved their 
plate, jewels, and money. 

53. The fire put an end to the pestilence, and 
so far proved a benefit, in the end ; for the city 
was rebuilt with wider streets ; the houses were 
built of brick or stone, and altogether it was 
handsomer and more healthy; one proof of 
which is, that the plague has not been known in 
London since. 

54. The visitation of the cholera, in 1829-30, 
although partaking somewhat of the character 
of a plague, was a different disease, and yielded 
to cleanliness and medical treatment. 

55. It was about this time, that tea was first 
brought to England, from China, by the East 
India Company ; but it was so very dear, that a 
pound of tea was thought a handsome present, 
and it was a very long while before people drank 
it as they do now. 

56. Except in London, Liverpool, and some 
of the principal towns, nobody had ever heard 
of such a thing as tea ; for there was but little 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 165 

intercourse between London and the country 
towns at that time, as the roads were still bad, 
and there were no stage coaches till a few years 
after the death of Charles the Second, and then 
only on three or four of the principal roads. 

57. The rich country gentlefolks lived in a 
plain homely way, and their daughters were 
brought up to assist in domestic duties, such as 
washing, ironing, cooking, knitting, and many 
other useful things ; but they seldom had any 
other accomplishments, and very few could read 
or write. 

58. Charles the Second died in 1685, twenty- 
five years after his restoration, and was suc- 
ceeded by his brother James, who was a Catholic, 
and tried, to restore the Catholic religion, 
although he had promised not to do so. 

59. The people soon began to feel that he did 
not mind breaking the laws to accomplish this 
object ; so a great many Protestant noblemen 
and gentlemen agreed that it would be better to 
take the crown from him, and to place on the 
throne a prince of another family, for they said, 
the laws would never be rightly observed so long 
as the Stuarts, or a Catholic king, reigned ; so 
they sent to William, prince of Orange, who was 
married to the king's daughter, Mary, and asked 



166 THE child's pictorial 

him to become king of England, and he con- 
sented. 

60. He came, with a large army, to Torbay, 
in Devonshire ; but there was no fighting, for 
king James, with his wife and infant son, fled to 
France, where he was kindly received by the 
French king, Louis the Fourteenth, who promised 
to try and replace him on the throne ; but the 
attempt was unsuccessful, as you will presently 
see. 

61. James the Second had only reigned in 
England three years, and during that time the 
Protestants were so cruelly treated in France, 
that thousands of industrious artisans came over 
here, chiefly silk weavers, but also watchmakers, 
cutlers, and manufacturers of glass, writing 
paper and many other things; from whom the 
English learned to make all these things as well 
as the French. 

62. The middle classes were much better off 
than at any former time, on account of the in- 
crease of trade ; but the lower orders were not 
so well off, for wages were less, in proportion 
to the prices of bread and meat, than they were 
at earlier periods of our history. 

QUESTIONS. 

2. What was the gunpowder plot ? 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 167 

3. What was the opinion of the new king with regard to 

sovereignty ? 

4. How were the American States first colonized ? 

5. Who succeeded James the first ? 

6. What gave rise to quarrels between the king and par- 

liament ? 
9. Who were the Eoundheads ? 
11. What sort of government was desired by the people ? 
14. Who was Oliver Cromwell ? 

16. What were the Cavaliers ? 

17. What was the ultimate fate of king Charles ? 

19. Name the date of his death. 

20. Did this event put an end to the war ? 

21. What was the battle of Worcester? 

30. How did Cromwell obtain sovereign power? 

31. What was his title? 

33. What conquests were made in his time ? 

37. How long did Cromwell rule ? 

38. What improvements were made in his time ? 

39. What followed the death of Cromwell ? 

40. Name the date of the restoration. 

44. What calamities befel London in this reign ? 

50. In what year was the fire of London ? 

53. Why did it eventually prove a benefit ? 

55. When was tea first brought to England ? 

58. How long did Charles the Second reign ? 

59. Why was James disliked by many of the people ? 

61. How were the useful arts improved in England, about 
this time ? 



168 



THE CHILD S PICTORIAL 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE REVOLUTION. — 1689 TO 1714. 




DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH. 



1. The changes made in the government by 
taking the crown from James the Second, and 
giving it to William the Third, was called the 
Revolution, and was a good thing for England, 
as it was then settled that no sovereign, in 
the future, should follow his own will, or act 
contrary to the laws of the country; that all 
new laws should be proposed by the parliament, 






HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 169 

and not by the king ; who was only to have the 
power of giving or refusing his consent to them ; 
which is very different from being able to make 
laws without asking any one, as the kings and 
queens of England had hitherto often done. 

2. The way, now, is this : — when a gentleman 
of the House of Commons, or a nobleman of 
the House of Lords, thinks of any thing that 
will be good for the nation, he mentions it to the 
rest and they all consult about it, every one giv- 
ing his opinion whether he thinks it good or not ; 
and if the greater number think it will be good, 
it is settled that it shall be done, if both Houses 
of Parliament and the sovereign agree to it ; 
for whichever House of Parliament begins and 
agrees to a measure, it is sent to the other 
House for approval : — this is called passing the 
bill. 

3. When both Houses have done what they 
consider good and necessary, it is submitted to 
the queen or king, who generally approves of it 
also ; and then it becomes a law. 

4. Another rule made at the Revolution was, 
that the parliament should meet every year, and 
that there should be a new election at least once 
in three years, to give the people an opportunity 
of choosing other members, if they had not ap- 
proved the votes of the old ones ; but, in the 

15 



170 the child's pictorial 

reign of George the First, this arrangement was 
altered to seven years, and so it has continued 
ever since. 

5. It was also agreed that none but a Protes- 
tant should ever be king or queen of England ; 
and all these, with many other regulations, were 
written down, and signed by king William, and 
this is called the Bill of Rights. 

6. No one was to be persecuted on account 
of his or her religion ; but the Catholics were 
not allowed to hold landed property, or to be 
members of parliament ; and it was not till the 
reign of George the Fourth that people of the 
Catholic faith were restored to their ancient 
rights and privileges. 

7. Soon after William was made king, he had 
to go to Ireland, to fight against James the Sec- 
ond, who had landed there with a French army, 
thinking the Irish would assist him to recover 
the throne. But he was defeated in a battle 
fought on the banks of the river Boyne, and 
obliged to. go back to France, where he lived in 
retirement for the rest of his life. 

8. His daughter, Mary, the wife of king Wil- 
liam, was a very amiable woman, and much be- 
loved by the English. It was she who induced 
the government to convert the palace at Green- 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 171 

wich into an asylum for poor old sailors ; and the 
king gave money for the purpose. 

9. The East Indian trade was very much in- 
creased during this reign, so that all things that 
came from China and India, such as tea, silk, 
cotton, spices, porcelain or china ware, and many 
other beautiful and useful things, became more 
easy to be procured in this country. 

10. I must also tell you that the Bank of 
England was now first established, for the pur- 
pose of raising money for the government to 
carry on war against Louis the Fourteenth, of 
France ; and this was the beginning of what you 
will sometimes hear called the National Debt; 
for when people put money into the bank, it is 
the same as lending it to the king or the gov- 
ernment ; and as long as they choose to lend it, 
they are paid so much a year for doing so, and 
this is called their dividend, which they go to 
the Bank twice a year to receive. 

11. The war in which king William was en- 
gaged, had nothing whatever to do with the 
English, but was only for the sake of helping 
the Archduke of Austria, to fight out his quar- 
rels with the king of France ; yet, after Wil- 
liam's death, these wars were carried on during 
the whole reign of queen Anne, who succeeded 



172 THE CHILD S PICTORIAL 

William the Third, in the year 1702, after he 
had reigned thirteen years. 

12. These wars caused great distress in Eng- 
land, where the taxes were increased, to pay the 
expenses of the soldiers, and trade was much 
injured, as we were at war with both France and 
Spain. 

13. There was a duty, for the first time, laid 
upon many things that people have to use every 
day, such as soap, starch, and paper, so that 
all these articles became much dearer. 

14. The meaning of a duty is this : — The par- 
liament says, no person may make any paper, 
unless he give to the government so much money 
for every ream he makes ; so the paper-makers 
pay the money, and charge more for their paper 
to the shopkeepers, who buy it of them ; then 
you and I, and every body who uses paper, must 
pay more for it than if there was no duty ; and 
the same with all things on which there are 
duties. So you see the expenses of war fall 
upon every one, in some way or other. 

15. Queen Anne was a daughter of James 
the Second, but as she was a Protestant, no ob- 
jection was made to her accession, although her 
brother was excluded from the throne, as being 
a Catholic. 

16. The most important event that took place 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 173 

in the reign of queen Anne, was the complete 
union of England and Scotland, for although 
they had been governed by one king, since the 
time of James the First, they had separate par- 
liaments, and different laws ; but it was now set- 
tled that a certain number of the Scottish lords 
and commons should sit in the English houses 
of parliament, and that all the laws about trade, 
and every thing that did not interfere with the 
habits or religion of Scotland, should be the 
same. 

17. This union of the parliaments took place 
in 1707, from which time England and Scotland 
have been one country, called Great Britain. 

18. Thei*e was a celebrated General, the Duke 
of Marlborough, who won some famous battles 
in Germany in the reign of queen Anne ; and 
there was a brave Admiral, Sir George Rooke, 
who took the fortress of Gibraltar, which was 
a conquest of some importance to England, 
because it stands at the entrance of the Medi- 
terranean sea, and may be said to command the 
passage taken by ships trading to the Gre- 
cian islands, Egypt, Turkey, &c. Queen Anne 
died in the year 1714, having reigned twelve 
years. 

15* 



174 THE child's pictorial 

questions. 

1. What was meant by the Revolution? 

2. What were the changes made in the government ? 

4. How was the duration of parliaments settled ? 

5. What was the Bill of Rights ? 

7. What was the battle of the Boyne ? 

8. Who was the wife of William the Third? 

10. When was the Bank of England established, and why? 

11. What was the object of the wars, and how long did 

they last ? 

16. What union was effected at this time ? 

17. When did it take place ? 

18. When did Queen Anne die ? 



CHAPTER XVII. 

HOUSE OF HANOVER. — 1714 TO 1830. 




DEATH OF GENERAL WOLFE. 



1. When Queen Anne died, the crown of 
England went to a German prince, named 
George, the elector or sovereign of Hanover, 
whose mother was grand-daughter of James the 
First. 

2. He was rather advanced in age, and being 
a stranger to the manners of the people, and to 



176 the child's pictorial 

the language and laws of the country, was not 
likely to become a popular monarch ; yet it was 
thought better that he should succeed to the 
throne, than to let the son of James II., who 
was now about six-and-twenty, be king of Great 
Britain. 

3. But there were a great many people in 
Scotland who wished to see the family of their 
ancient kings restored, and some of the great 
men, there, raised an army, and invited prince 
James Stuart, who is usually called the Preten- 
der, to place himself at the head of it, and go 
to war with George the First. 

4. The Pretender went to Scotland, aud two 
battles were fought, one near Dumblane, and the 
other near Preston, in Lancashire ; but the Eng- 
lish troops gained the victory at both places, 
and the prince was glad to get back to France 
again. 

5. A great many English had joined in this 
rebellion, for, as I said before, the new king was 
not very generally liked ; and it was mostly the 
English party that fought for the Pretender at 
Preston, and, I am sorry to say, all who were 
made prisoners were very cruelly treated. The 
leaders were put to death, and those who had 
fought under their command, were mostly sent 
to America, and sold for slaves. 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 177 

6. You remember how the American colonies 
were first settled. Well, they had now become 
large populous places, and cities had been built 
there ; but the people were cultivators, and had 
no manufactures of any kind, for they were 
obliged to have all they wanted of manufactured 
goods, either for clothing, or any other purpose, 
from England, which was a great advantage to 
this country, by furnishing employment for Eng- 
lish manufactures. 

7. Perhaps you will say, why could they not 
have things from other countries, as well as 
from England ? — but you must bear in mind that 
the American states were then under British 
government, and remained so till the reign of 
George the Third, when the Americans estab- 
lished a government of their own, and went to 
war with Great Britain, as you will presently 
read, and with the assistance of France, made 
themselves independent of this country. 

8. George the First died in 1727, having 
reigned nearly thirteen years, and he was suc- 
ceeded by his son, George the Second. 

9. There had been a great change in the 
mode of dress since the time of the Stuarts, for 
queen Anne had introduced a fashion of setting 
out the gowns with hoops ; and gentlemen wore 
coats' with broad square- cut tails, waistcoats with 



178 THE child's pictorial 

long flaps, colored stockings drawn up over the 
knee, lace ruffles, large shoe buckles, wigs with 
rows of stiff curls, three-cornered hats bound 
with gold-lace, and swords. 

10. Towards the close of the eighteenth cen- 
tury this formal inconvenient style of dress was 
altered gradually ; swords were left off ; the hair 
which, in the early part of the reign of George 
the Third, was frizzed out, pomatumed and pow- 
dered, was dressed in a more natural manner ; 
round hats came into fashion, and people began 
to look something like what they do now. 

11. The reign of George the Second, which 
lasted thirty-three years, was on the whole rather 
a prosperous one, the greater part of it being 
spent in peace. There was no war for about 
twelve years, and during that time improvements 
were going on all over the country. 

12. Most of the great towns were made larger, 
and new manufactories built, for the trade of 
England was increasing every year, and great 
quantities of manufactured goods were sent out 
to foreign countries ; besides which, new roads 
were opened, waste lands cultivated, canals 
formed, and new harbors made for shipping, so 
that there was plenty of employment for the 
laboring people. 

13. We had a good navy at this time, and the 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 179 

first war that broke out was carried on entirely 
at sea. It was with the Spaniards, who had 
taken possession of a great part of South 
America, and, as they chose to keep all the 
trade to themselves, they had ships constantly 
sailing about, to prevent the ships of other na- 
tions coming there, which was all very fair ; but 
not content with guarding their own possessions, 
they interfered with British merchants, who 
were going to or from other places, plundered 
some of their vessels, and behaved so ill, that 
the British government was obliged to declare 
war, and sent out a great many ships to fight 
the Spaniards. 

14. I dare say you have heard stories about 
press-gangs taking away poor men against their 
will, to make sailors of them. This cruel expe- 
dient for getting plenty of sailors, was resorted 
to in all the wars during the reigns of George 
the Second and George the Third, when many a 
poor fellow, in going to or returning from his 
daily labor, was met by a party of armed men, 
called a press-gang, and carried off, by force, to 
a ship, without being allowed to go home, or 
take leave of his family. Such things ought not 
to be done in a free country, and I hope they 
never will be done again, even if we should have 
the misfortune to be at war. 



180 the child's pictorial 

15. At this time, the French had large pos- 
sessions in India, as well as the English, and it 
seemed doubtful which of the two nations would, 
in the end, be masters of the country ; but this 
question was decided in the reign of George the 
Second, for, while the war with Spain was going 
on, a war broke out between France and Eng- 
land, about the affairs of Germany, where our 
king himself commanded the army, and fought 
at the battle of Dettingen ; but the fighting be- 
tween the French and English in India, was of 
more consequence, as several great victories were 
gained by a brave commander, named Clive, by 
which the superiority of the English in India 
was quite established, and ever since that time, 
we have gained one place after another, in that 
extensive and rich country, until a large portion 
of India has become a province of the British 
empire. 

16. While these wars were going on abroad, 
there was another great rebellion in Scotland ; 
for prince Charles Edward Stuart, the son of 
the old Pretender, being now a man, had come 
there to make another attempt to recover the 
throne for his father ; and being joined by some 
of the Highland chiefs, and numbers of Scotch 
people, as well as by many English who were 
discontented with the government, he went to 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 181 

Holyrood house, the old palace of his ancestors, 
at Edinburgh, where he held a court, and be- 
haved as if he had been sovereign of the country. 

17. Of course, an army was sent from Eng- 
land, to put down this rebellion, which caused a 
great deal of misery ; for, besides the numbers 
of brave men that were killed in the several 
battles which took place, many were afterwards 
executed as traitors, which must have been more 
dreadful for their families than if they had fallen 
in battle. 

18. If Charles Edward had any good feeling, 
I think he must have been very sorry for the 
mischief he caused. He was finally defeated at 
the battle of Culloden, and obliged to escape, 
like Charles the Second, after the battle of 
Worcester, and his adventures are very similar, 
but more full of suffering, than those of the 
merry monarch. This is usually called the Re- 
bellion of '45, because it was in the year 1745. 

19. There is only one thing more of impor- 
tance to mention in the reign of Greorge the Sec- 
ond, and that is the conquest of the large coun- 
try of Canada, in North America, which had 
belonged to the French, who had settled there 
as the English had in the United States, and 
built several good towns, one of which was 
Quebec. 

16 



182 THE child's pictorial 

20. There had frequently been quarrels be- 
tween the French and English in America, 
respecting their possessions, which, at length, 
occasioned a war there, and soldiers were sent 
out both from France and England, the French 
wanting to conquer the British states, the Eng- 
lish to gain possession of Canada. 

21. This war had lasted about five years, 
when the renowned General Wolfe gained a 
great victory at the battle of Quebec; after 
which, the French gave up Canada, which has 
belonged to England ever since, and is a very 
useful possession, supplying abundance of fine 
corn, and timber for building. 

22. General Wolfe was killed on the field of 
battle, just as the victory was won, and his 
death was much lamented in England, where the 
news of the conquest arrived a few days before 
the death of the king, which happened in Octo- 
ber, 1760, after he had reigned thirty-three 
years. 

23. The eldest son of George the Second was 
dead, but he had left a son, named George, who 
succeeded his grandfather, and was about twen- 
ty-two years old. He was a very good man and 
was highly respected, although many people say 
he was more fitted for a country gentleman than 
a king. 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 183 

24. He married a German princess, whose 
name was Charlotte, and they had many chil- 
dren, some of whom are yet living. Our queen 
is the grand-daughter of George the Third. 

25. About two years after the new king came 
to the throne, peace was made with France and 
Spain, and there were no more wars for thirteen 
years, when the Americans became dissatisfied 
with the English government, and resolved to 
have a government of their own. 

26. But let us see what useful things were 
done in England during that thirteen years of 
peace. First of all, the manufacture of China 
ware was begun in Staffordshire, by a gentle- 
man, named Wedgewood, who built large facto- 
ries and employed a great number of people in 
this new branch of art. Then a machine was 
invented for spinning cotton, by which we were 
enabled to manufacture cotton goods in much 
larger quantities than before, and as they could 
be sold abroad, this was a great benefit. 

27. It was also discovered how very useful 
steam engines might be made ; but I fancy 
nobody then imagined that we should ever travel 
by steam, or print by steam, or do many other 
wonderful things, that are now done by that 
means. 

28. Turnpike roads were established all over 



184 THE CHILD'S PICTORIAL 

the kingdom, and travelling thus rendered safer 
and more expeditious. People were in general 
much better educated than in the preceding cen- 
tury, and all arts and sciences were greatly im- 
proved. 

29. And now I will tell you something about 
the American war. The quarrel began about 
some taxes which the British government im- 
posed on the Americans, to help to pay the ex- 
penses of the wars with France and Spain, which 
the Americans thought they had nothing to do 
with; and considered it unjust that the} 7 should 
have to find money towards paying for them. 

30. British troops were sent out, to force 
them to obey the orders of the government ; but 
instead of complying, all the colonies agreed to 
join together and fight for their liberty ; and a 
very brave and good man, named General Wash- 
ington, took the command of the American 
army. 

31. This war lasted many years, and the 
French and Dutch assisted the Americans with 
troops, ships, and money. 

32. There were many gentlemen in the Eng- 
lish parliament who wanted to put an end to the 
war, by giving up all control over the Ameri- 
cans ; but others would not consent, the king 
was unwilling to do so, till, at last, finding there 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 185 

was little chance of success, the English govern- 
ment gave up the contest, and the American 
colonies became independent of England, and 
took the name of the United States. 

33. This event took place in 1783, after which, 
there were a few more years of peace, and then 
the long wars with France were begun, which 
lasted above twenty years, and were ended by 
the famous battle of Waterloo. 

34. The cause of the war was this. There 
had been a great revolution in France. The 
people rose up against king Louis the Sixteenth, 
who was made prisoner, and beheaded ; just as 
Charles the First was treated here, and for 
much the same cause. Then a number of persons 
took the government into their own hands, and 
governed without a king, and declared war 
against the king of Great Britain, and also 
against the stadtholder of Holland, and the king 
of Spain, for disapproving of what the French 
people had done. 

35. The Spaniards and Dutch were after- 
wards obliged to join the French, and many 
battles were fought both on land and at sea, and 
some naval victories were gained by the British 
Admirals Duncan, Howe, and Nelson, and. other 
officers. 

36. The greatest man in France at this time 

16* 



186 the child's pictorial 

was Napoleon Bonaparte, an artillery officer, 
who raised himself to the head of the state, just 
as Cromwell did here, by getting the soldiers to 
side with him. He was called consul, at first, 
but afterwards he was made emperor, and he 
conquered a great part of Europe, and he made 
the governments of those countries which he did 
not conquer do just as he pleased, except Eng- 
land, for he had the largest armies of any sov- 
ereign in the world. 

37. The most celebrated of our generals in 
the war against Bonaparte, were Abercrombie, 
Sir John Moore, and the Duke of Wellington, 
the last of whom won a great many battles in 
Spain, and at last, with the assistance of the 
Prussians, gained the great victory at Waterloo, 
near Brussels, on the 18th of June, 1815, after 
which, Bonaparte surrendered to the English, 
and was banished to a small island, called St. 
Helena, in the South Atlantic Ocean, where he 
died in a few years. The fall of Bonaparte was 
followed by a general peace. 

38. George the Third was still living, but he 
had been out of his mind, and blind, for some 
time, so that his son George, prince of Wales, 
had been made regent in the year 1810, and 
conducted the government with that title, till his 
father's death, which happened in the year 1820, 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 187 

he having reigned above fifty-nine years, when 
George the Fourth became king, instead of 
regent. 

39. But I must now go back some years to 
tell you of something that was done at the be- 
ginning of this century. You have been told 
that Ireland had been subject to England, ever 
since the time of Henry the Second ; but there 
had constantly been quarrels and warfare be- 
tween the native Irish, and the new Irish, who 
were the descendants of the English, who had 
settled there, after the conquest. 

40. Then the new Irish were just as ready to 
quarrel with new English settlers, as the old 
Irish were with them ; and, till the last fifty 
years, little had been done to make the people 
of Ireland a better or a happier race. They 
had a parliament of their own, but it did not 
encourage the people to be industrious, so they 
were, of course, very poor. 

41. A few years after the war with France 
began, there was a great rebellion in Ireland, 
and soldiers were sent from England, to put a 
stop to it, which I am afraid was not done with- 
out a great deal of cruelty; but it was in conse- 
quence of this rebellion that the English govern- 
ment resolved that the parliament and country of 
Ireland should be united to that of England; as 



188 THE child's pictorial 

the parliament and country of Scotland had been, 
and this union took place on the first of January, 
1801, which you will easily remember, because 
it was the first day of the nineteenth century. 

42. Many good laws have been made since 
then, for the benefit of Ireland, and much been 
done to improve the country; but numbers of 
the Irish people still remain in a very distressed 
condition, and some of them wanted to have a 
separate Parliament again ; and this is what is 
meant by Repeal of the Union ; but this feeling 
is now fast dying away. 

43. In the reign of George the Third, there 
were National and Sunday schools established in 
almost every part of England, so that the poor 
people might be able to have their children 
taught to read and write, which was a great 
blessing to them ; for although there had long 
been charity schools in London, there were few 
in the country, and many of the shopkeepers in 
country towns, who had become quite respectable 
people by their industry, were so ignorant that 
they could not even make out their own bills, or 
keep their own accounts. 

44. There were two more great improvements 
before the death of George the Third; the one 
was the invention of gas lights, which make the 
streets much lighter at night than the dim oil 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 189 

lamps that were formerly used ; and the other 
was the introduction of steam boats, which had 
'lately been invented in America. 

QUESTIONS. 

1. Who succeeded queen Anne? 

3. Who was the Pretender? 

4. What was the Rebellion ? 

5. How did it end ? 

6. What was the state of the American colonies at this 

period 
8. Who succeeded George the First ? 

12. How was the country improved in this reign ? 

13. With whom did the English go to war, and why ? 

14. How were sailors forcibly obtained ? 

15. Were there any other wars in this reign ? 

16. What was the Rebellion of '45 ? 

18. Where was the final battle fought ? 

19. What great conquest was made in this reign? 

20. What gave rise to the war ? 

21. What battle decided the contest 

22. Which of our Generals was killed in the moment of 

victory ? 

23. Who succeeded George the Second ? 

29. What was the cause of the American war ? 

30. Who was the leader of the Americans ? 
32. How did the war terminate ? 

34. What gave rise to the last war with France ? 

36. Who was Bonaparte ? 

37. What victory put an end to the war ? 

38. Who ruled in England at this time ? 

41. When did the Union with Ireland take place ? 

42. What other improvements took place during the reign 

of George III. ? 



190 



THE CHILD S PICTORIAL 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



FROM THE DEATH OF GEORGE THE THIRD, 
1830, TO THE PRESENT TIME. 



S3 sis mAm rm 



mm mm 




QUEEN VICTORIA'S VISIT TO THE CITY OF LONDON. 



1. George the Fourth, who had been regent 
ten years, reigned as a king from 1820, to 1830. 
During that time, every improvement that had 
been begun was carried to a greater extent. 
The education of all classes of people was con- 
ducted on a better system, and greater numbers 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 191 

of cheap books were published for the instruc- 
tion of the working classes. 

2. London was greatly improved by the build- 
ing, in some parts, of wide handsome streets, in 
the place of narrow, dirty, crowded ones, and 
the manners of the English were improved also, 
by their intercourse with foreign nations ; for 
after the peace, people began to visit France, 
Italy, and other parts of Europe, while a great 
number of foreigners came here, and we adopted 
such of their customs as were superior to our 
own ; for people may always improve from each 
other. 

3. The French, German, and Italian lan- 
guages began to be more generally studied in 
England : and the arts and sciences, especially 
painting and music, were more highly cultivated. 

4. But I am sorry to say that, amid all these 
benefits, there was a great deal of distress 
among the laboring people, for the expenses of 
the war had been so heavy that it was some 
years before the blessings of peace could be felt ; 
and thus all the necessaries of life continued to 
be very dear, and wages, in proportion, very low, 
which occasioned riots in many parts of the 
kingdom ; for the poor people had expected that, 
as soon as there was peace, most of the taxes 
pressing on them would be taken off. v 



192 THE child's pictorial 

5. But the government thought it right first 
to take off the property tax, and then found 
they could not do without the money the other 
taxes produced. Then the people, not getting 
relief from the taxation, thought some altera- 
tions in the laws might remedy their distress, and 
sent petitions to parliament praying that these 
alterations might be made. The principal thing 
they wanted was, what you have perhaps heard 
called the Reform Bill. 

6. This was a law to give the right of voting 
for members of parliament to a greater number 
of people, and also to make alterations with re- 
gard to the places that were allowed to send 
members to parliament ; for there were many 
old boroughs that were formerly important 
places, but now had scarcely a house left stand- 
ing, yet still were represented by two members 
in parliament; which was ridiculous, because the 
object of sending a member to parliament is. 
that he may do all the good he can for the peo- 
ple of the place he represents, as well as for the 
nation ; then there were many large towns, such 
as Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, &c, that 
had grown into importance since the time when 
it was settled what places should have represen- 
tatives, and these had none at all. 

7. Another thing desired by the people, was 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 193 

an alteration in the Corn Laws, so that bread 
might be cheaper ; and this alteration was to be 
made by letting corn be brought from abroad 
without paying duty. Neither of these points 
were gained while George the Fourth was king ; 
but the Reform Bill was passed during the reign 
of his successor, William the Fourth ; and, in 
the year 1846, some important alterations were 
made in the corn and provision laws. 

8. William the Fourth was the brother of 
George the Fourth, and ,<on the death of that 
monarch, in 1830, succeeded to the throne. 

9. That same year is memorable for the open- 
ing of the first Railway for travelling, which 
was that between Manchester and Liverpool ; a 
circumstance that may be mentioned as the com- 
mencement of one of the greatest changes of 
modern times, and when we consider the number 
and extent of the railways now in use, we can- 
not but admire the immense works of the kind 
that have been performed in so short a space of 
time. 

10. The speed with which we can now travel, 
both by sea and land, would astonish our good 
old ancestors, who used to think it a great and 
dangerous undertaking to set out on a journey 
of twenty or thirty miles. 

11. In the time of Charles the Second, the 

17 



194 THE child's pictorial 

poet Cowley, who had a country house at Chert- 
sey, which is only twenty-two miles from London, 
invited a friend in town to pay him a visit, say- 
ing in his letter, that as he could not perform 
the whole journey in one day, he might sleep at 
Hampton. 

12. I think he would have been glad of a 
railway, which would have taken him all the 
way before breakfast. In 1706, the stage coach 
from York was four days coming to London ; 
and so late as 1763, there was only a coach once 
a month from Edinburgh to London ; and it was 
a whole fortnight on the road ; so I think you 
will see the advantages of our present mode of 
travelling. 

13. The custom of buying and selling negroes 
had been abolished by parliament during the 
reign of George the Third, but there were many 
thousands of slaves in the West India islands, 
belonging to the British planters there. 

14. During the reign of William the Fourth, 
the British government gave twenty millions of 
money to buy all the slaves of their masters and 
then set them free. The day when the negroes 
became free people was the first of August, 
1838. 

15. I told you that the Reform Bill was passed 
in this reign. One consequence of this measure 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 195 

was, the lessening of the duties, or taxes, on 
many articles of necessity, thereby reducing 
their prices, so that the poor people could live 
much better than they had formerly. 

16. The harvests were also plentiful for seve- 
ral years, so that bread was very cheap, and the 
prices of all kinds of clothing were less than in 
previous years. 

17. Upon the whole, there had never been a 
better time in England than the seven years that 
William the Fourth occupied the throne. He 
died in 1837, and was succeeded by her present 
Majesty, queen Victoria, who was the daughter 
of his deceased brother, the Duke of Kent. 

18. In 1840, she married her cousin, Prince 
Albert, of Saxe Coburg and Gotha. Their 
family now consists of eight children, four prin- 
ces, and four princesses. 

19. The most remarkable events that have 
yet happened in the reign of queen Victoria, 
are the wars in China and India : but I ought to 
have mentioned an alteration made in the last 
reign, with regard to the East India trade, 
which you, perhaps, remember was carried on 
solely by the East India Company, according to 
a charter granted by queen Elizabeth, and re- 
newed, from time to time, by other sovereigns. 

20. In 1813, however, it was made lawful for 



196 THE child's pictorial 

private merchants to trade to India ; but this 
right was not extended to the trade with China, 
which was still confined to the Company till 
1833, when a new law was made with regard' to 
that also, and any person then was at liberty to 
go to China for tea, silk, and other commodities, 
which have since been much cheaper in conse- 
quence. Tea is little more than half the price 
it used to be, which is a great benefit and com- 
fort to the poor. 

21. But this had nothing to do with the war 
in China, which arose from a dispute about the 
British merchants selling opium to the Chinese, 
who were forbidden by their emperor to buy it, 
because it injures the health of those who take 
it, like drinking spirits. 

22. Still the merchants continued to carry 
opium to China, and the people to buy it ; so the 
governor at Canton, the only Chinese town in 
which foreigners were allowed to trade, seized 
and burnt some ship-loads of opium, for which 
he would not pay the owners ; and this was the 
cause of the war. 

23. There were several battles fought, in 
which the Chinese were always defeated, for 
they were not much acquainted with the present 
art of war ; but, at last, after three years of 
Warfare, peace was made with the British ; and 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 197 

the Chinese emperor agreed to pay a sum of 
money, and to cede, or give up, to the British 
government, the Island of Hong Kong ; besides 
agreeing that English ships might land goods 
for sale, at five ports, instead of one only, and 
that British merchants might have warehouses, 
and reside at those places. A treaty to this 
effect was signed in August, 1842. 

24. The war in India, was much more serious, 
and lasted a great deal longer. It was begun 
for the purpose of restoring to his throne an In- 
dian prince, the king of Caboul, who had been 
deprived of his kingdom by another prince. 

25. The wars occasioned by this usurpation 
being likely to endanger the safety of the British 
possessions, the Governor General thought it 
necessary to interfere ; and from the year 1839 
to that of 1846, the British armies in India were 
engaged in terrible and destructive wars with 
the Affghans, and other nations in the north and 
west of India. 

26. These calamitous strifes were happily 
ended by two great victories gained on the banks 
of the Sutlej, at the beginning of 1846, the one 
by General Sir Harry Smith, the other, by Gen- 
eral Sir Hugh Gough. By the conquests made 
during these wars, the British empire is extended 
over the greater part of India. 

17* 



198 THE child's pictorial 

27. Among the important inventions of this 
reign, may be mentioned that of the Electric 
Telegraph, by means of which communications 
can be made between places a hundred miles 
apart in one moment, or indeed to any imagin- 
able distances. 

28. I have already mentioned the distressed 
condition of great numbers of the Irish people ; 
and am sorry to have now to say that their 
misery has been greatly increased in the last 
three years, by the failure of the potato crops, 
on which the lower orders in Ireland depend for 
their subsistence. 

29. This food they can, with two or three 
months labor in the year, grow for themselves ; 
and as they are, unfortunately, contented with 
such poor living, it is a very sad thing for them 
when a bad season occurs, and the potatoes are 
spoiled; which happens generally once in six or 
seven years. 

30. But there have now been three bad sea- 
sons following each other ; and this calamity has 
caused so much distress, that thousands have 
died of fevers and other diseases, occasioned by 
want of wholesome and sufficient food. 

31. The Parliament expended several millions 
of money in relieving their distresses, and pro- 
viding them employment. Large sums of mo- 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. "199 

ney were also subscribed bj individuals in Eng 
land, Scotland, and America, for the relief of 
the people in Ireland ; and charitable committees 
were formed in many parts of that country to 
receive the money, and distribute the food and 
clothing purchased with it. 

32. New poor laws have, also been made by 
the government, to afford greater relief to the 
destitute ; and every thing has been done, that 
humanity could suggest, to better their condition 
and relieve their wants. 

33. The year 1848 will ever be memorable for 
the revolutions that have taken place in France 
and other parts of the continent. Louis Phil- 
ippe, the French king, was dethroned on the 
24th of February, 1848, and fled with his family, 
to England. 

34. At Berlin, the capital of Prussia, there 
was also an insurrection in March, 1848, when 
a frightful battle was fought in the streets, be- 
tween the soldiers and the people. 

35. Great numbers of persons were killed on 
both sides, and many houses were destroyed ; 
and although peace was restored by the king 
granting the demands of his subjects, yet that 
could not bring back happiness to those who had 
lost their fathers, husbands, or brothers, in the 
fatal conflict. 



200 THE child's pictorial 

36. Besides those already named, revolutions, 
attended with great loss of life and destruction 
of property, have taken place at Vienna, the 
capital of Austria, and other parts of Germany. 
Italy, too, has shared in the spread of revolu- 
tion; Naples, Milan, and Venice, having been 
scenes of fearful tumult and destruction of life. 

37. In most of the places I have mentioned, 
the people having been fighting for a constitu- 
tional form of government, similar to that of our 
own happy united kingdom ; conveying the 
strongest proof that we ought not to wish for a 
change. Yet there have been some attempts 
made to disturb the peace of this country, by 
ill-informed or worthless persons. 

38. Perhaps the desire for some increase in 
the number of the electors, and in the places 
represented in parliament, by uniting the adja- 
cent towns to the small boroughs, is not unrea- 
sonable. 

39. But when we think of the dreadful state 
of things in France, Italy and Germany, where 
so many thousands of people have lost their 
lives, where trade is ruined, where the middle 
classes are reduced to poverty, and the working 
people, in consequence, starving, for want of 
employment, we cannot be too thankful for the 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 201 

peace, the liberty, and prosperity, we enjoy in 
this more favored and happier country. 

QUESTIONS. 

1. Who succeeded George the Third ? 
6. What was the Reform Bill ? 

8. Who succeeded George the Fourth, and in what year ? 

9. When was the first Railway opened ? 

13. When was slavery abolished in the West Indies ? 

17. When did William the Fourth die ? 

17. When did Victoria ascend the throne ? 

18. Who did Victoria marry? 

19. Name the principal events of her reign. 

22. What gave rise to the war in China ? 

23. How did it end ? 

24. Why was the war in India commenced ? 
26. What has been the result ? 

28. What has caused great misery in Ireland ? 

31. What has been done for the relief of the Irish people ? 

33. What has taken place in France ? 

36. Where have other Revolutions taken place ? 



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